txbvaxy  of  <£he  Cheolocjtcal  gmimry 

PRINCETON  •  NEW  JERSEY 


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Plate  1 


OUTLINES 


SWEDEN  BORG'S 
COSMOLOGY 


BY 

LILLIAN  G.  BEEKMAN 


bryn  athyn,  pa. 
Academy  Book  Room 
1907 


ACHEY  &  GORRECHT 
PRINTERS 
LANCASTER,  PA. 


CONTENTS. 


Chapter  I.  page. 

The  Finiting  of  the  Infinite    i 

God.  the  only  substance,  and  origin  of  all  created 
substances,  p.  r.  Swcdenborg's  definitions  of 
universal*,  p.  4.  The  accommodation  of  the  In- 
finite to  the  finite,  p.  7.  Production  of  Vortex 
rings,  p.  8.  The  First  Natural  Point,  its  product- 
ive action  and  essential  characteristics,  p.  9.  The 
Primitives  of  the  Spiritual  Sun,  p.  13.  First 
Finites,  p.  19.  Second  Finites,  p.  20.  The  first 
Aura,  p.  21. 

Chapter  II. 

The  Derivation  of  the  First  Substance  of  Creation.  23 
A  Resume,  p.  23.  The  first  atmosphere  and  it* 
uses,  p.  26.  Its  internal  construction,  p.  27.  The 
human  spirituous  fluid,  p.  31.  The  simple  fibre, 
p.  33.  The  celestial  cortex,  p.  34.  The  Second 
or  Magnetic  Aura,  and  its  bullae,  p.  38.  The 
accommodation  of  the  Spiritual  Sun.  p.  41.  The 
volumes  of  the  Second  Aura.  p.  42.  Discrete 
Degrees,  p.  44. 

Chapter  II T. 

Natural  Suns  and  Planets    51 

Third  Finites  and  their  origin,  p.  54.  The  bulL-e  of 
the  Second  Aura,  p.  58.  Fourth  Finites.  p.  59. 
The  planetary  masses,  p.  61.   The  Satellites,  p.  64. 

iii 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE. 

The  Sun  Spots,  p.  65.    Further  development  of 
Planets  and  Satellites,  p.  66. 

Chapter  IV. 

The  Natural  Atmospheres  and  Water    72 

The  Solar  Vortex,  p.  72.  The  Active  Solar  Centre, 
p.  78.  Light,  p.  79.  Progress  of  the  Earihs  to 
their  Orbits,  p.  84.  The  Third  Aura,  or  Ether, 
p.  86.  The  Fourth  Aura  or  Air,  p.  92.  Origin 
of  the  Water  Molecule,  p.  94. 

Chapter  V. 

Salts  and  the  Crust  of  the  Earth.    Protoplasm   98 

The  Centrifugal  and  the  Centripetal  Forces,  p.  98. 
The  Compression  of  the  Fourth  Aura.  p.  100. 
The  Primeval  Ocean,  p.  100.  Formation  of  the 
Salt  Molecule,  p.  101.  The  Ramenta  of  broken 
Salt  particles,  p.  104.  Primitives  of  Carbon,  p. 
104.  First  formation  of  Oils  or  Hydro-carbons, 
p.  105.  Origin  of  the  Earth-crust,  p.  106.  The 
Formative  substance  of  the  Vegetable  Kingdom, 
p.  108.  The  first  Seed-soil,  p.  109.  Corroborative 
Evidences,  p.  no.  Growth  of  the  Ear'h-crust, 
p.  1 12.  Protoplasm,  p.  112.  Life-formative  func- 
tions of  the  Ether,  p.  114.  Salt  as  the  Con- 
junctive of  Oil  and  Water,  p.  116.  Rise  of 
Animalculate  Life,  p.  118. 

Chapter  VI. 

The  first  Vegetative  Formation,  and  its  living  Ser- 


iv 


CONTENTS. 


PACE. 

vice  in  preparing  an  Atmosphere  for  breathing 

creatures    121 

The  Divine  in  ultimates,  p.  121.  First  vege- 
tative forms,  p.  124.  Preparation  of  an  Atmo- 
sphere for  Breathing,  p.  128.  The  Aerial  Salt, 
p.  130.    Its  Identity  with  Oxygen,  p.  132. 


Chapter  VII. 

A  Chapter  in  Geology    137 

Rise  of  floating,  vegetative  Land.  p.  137.  First  ap- 
pearance of  the  Nitrogen  family,  p.  139.  Silicon 
and  Carbon,  p.  142.  Evolution  of  the  Halogens 
and  the  Alkaline  and  Earthy  Metals.  Sweden- 
borg's  interpretation  of  the  succession  of  early 
Geological  strata,  p.  150.  The  Sub-saline  layer, 
and  its  connection  with  the  Upheaval  of  moun- 
tains, the  action  of  Volcanoes,  and  the  forma- 
tion of  Magnetic  ores,  p.  154.  Diluvial  cause  of 
what  is  misnamed  Glacial  Action  and  Glacial 
Drift,  p.  166.  The  production  of  Metals  and  me- 
tallic Ores.  p.  168. 


v 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 

PAGE. 

Plate  i.  Frontispiece. 

Plate  II.    A  Vortex  Ring,  illustrating  the  perpetually 

spiral  form  and  interior  fluxion  of  flnites   18 

Plate  lir.    A  Bulla  of  the  First  Aura    28 

Plate  IV.    A  Bulla  of  the  Second  Aura    38 

Plate  V.    The  Solar  Vortex    72 

Plate  VI.    A  Bulla  of  the  Third  Aura;  or  Ether   87 

Plate  VI 1.    A  Bulla  of  the  Fourth  Aura  or  Aerial 

Elementary    92 

Diagram,  illustrating  the  series  of  Finites  and  Auras, 

and  their  mutual  relations    96 

Plate  VIII.    Group  of  nine  molecules  of  Water   102 

Plate  IX.    The  same  group,  with  central  molecule  col- 
lapsed   103 

Plate  X.    The  Salt  Particle    103 


vi 


WORKS  BY  SWEDENBORG 


REFERRED  TO  IN  THIS  TREATISE  BY  ABBREVIATIONS  OR  BY  FULL 
TITLE. 

A.  C.--The  Arcana  Ccelestia. 

Adv. — The  Adversaria. 

A.  E. —  The  Apocalypse  Explained. 

A.  K. — The  Animal  Kingdom. 

Ath.  Cr. — On  the  Athanasian  Creed. 

Chem. — The  Principles  of  Chemistry. 

C.  L. — Conjugial  Love. 

Corp.  Phil. — Corpuscular  Philosophy. 
De  Eibra — CEconomia  Regni  Animalis,  Transactio  III. 
(London  1847). 

D.  Love — On     the    Divine    Love,    (Appendix    to  the 

Apocalypse  Explained). 
D.  L.  W. — The  Divine  Love  and  Wisdom. 
D.  P. — The  Divine  Providence. 

D.  Wis. — On  the  Divine  Wisdom,    (Appendix  to  (lie 

Apocalypse  Explained). 
Doc. — Documents   concerning    Swedenborg,   by   R.  L. 
Tafel. 

E.  A.  K. — The  Economy  of  the  Animal  Kingdom. 
H.  H. — Heaven  and  Hell. 

J.  Post. — The  posthumous  work  On  the  Last  Judgment. 

Lesser  Principia— A  forerunner  to  the  Principia. 

Misc.  Obs. — Miscellaneous  Observations. 

On  Copper — Vol.  III.  of  Opera  Philosophica  et  Min- 

ERALIA. 


vii 


WORKS  BY  S\VEDENBOR(J. 


Post.  Tracts — Posthumous  Tracts. 

Principia — Vol.  I.  of  Opera  Philosophica  et  Mineralia. 

S.  D. — The  Spiritual  Diary. 

The  Infinite — On  the  Infinite. 

The  Soul— Rational  Psychology. 

T.  C.  R. — The  True  Christian  Religion. 

Worsh.  and  Love  of  God— Worship  and  Love  of  God. 


viii 


CHAPTER  I. 


THE  FINITING  OF  INFINITY. 

The  First  Finiting  of  Infinity  is  in  the  nature 
of  vortex  rings  small  as  points,  produced  in  the 
substance  of  the  Infinite.  These  are  the  "natural 
points"  of  Swedenborg's  Principia,  and  the  "sim- 
ples" and  "primitives"  of  his  work  On  the  Infinite. 
They  are  the  primitives  of  the  Spiritual  Sun.  They 
are  "the  Only  Begotten."  "the  nexus,"  the  Logos, 
the  seed  of  creation. 

Around  the  Spiritual  Sun  are  two  successive  radi- 
ant belts ;  these  are  the  volumes  of  the  first  and  sec- 
ond finites.  The  third  thing  in  succession  is  an 
atmosphere,  which  is  the  atmosphere  of  the  celestial 
heaven  and  of  the  universe.  By  this  atmosphere 
the  Lord  is  immediately  and  universally  operative 
and  active  in  the  spiritual  world  and  in  the  natural. 

God,  who  is  Infinite,  the  Divine  Esse,  the  I 
Am,  is  substance  in  Itself,  and  as  the  Infinite  and 
the  only  substance,  He  is  everywhere.  There  is  no 
place  where  He  is  not.  Therefore  the  universe  and 
all  the  finite  or  bounded  things  thereof  are  brought 


I 


swedenborg's  cosmology. 


forth  in  Him.  The  universe  is  finited  only  in  the 
Infinite.1  Hence  there  exists  an  apparent  vacuum 
which  still  is  not  a  vacuum  ;  for  an  interstitial  noth- 
ing is  not  possible.  What  appears  empty  is  filled 
by  the  living  Substance  in  Itself,  the  Divine  which 
Is.2  Thus  in  God  we  live,  and  move  and  have  our 
being.3 

God  wills  to  create  finite,  bounded,  recipient 
forms,  individuals,  which  He  can  both  infill,  and 
act  upon.4  God,  by  the  predicates  of  His  living 
Esse,  could  not  bring  those  recipient  individuals 
into  existence  by  fiat.  But  He  could  form  them 
from  small  discrete  particles  of  substance,  or  sub- 
stantial, previously  produced.5 

God,  the  Origin  of  created  Substances.  What 
is  the  source  of  these  substantial,  these  minimal, 
first  finited  particles  of  substances,  these  primordial 
substantials  from  which  God  creates  His  universe? 
Since  their  creation  by  fiat,  or  from  nothing,  is  pre- 
cluded,0 therefore  the  Infinite,  the  living  expanse, 

'Principia,  part.  III.  chap.  I.  II. 
2J.  Post.  265.    D.  L.  W.  82. 

-D.  L.  W.  30.    E.  A.  K.  part  II.  238.    A.  E.  1121. 
<D.  L.  W.  53-    T.  C.  R.  30. 

r'D.  Love.  II.  Principia  part.  I.  chap.  III.  7.    D.  P.  6. 
A.  E.  1 121 
«D.  L.  W.  55,  282,  283. 


2 


THE  FINITING  OF  INFINITY. 


Substance  in  Itself,  must  be  the  Source  and  Origin 
of  these  minima  of  substance,  of  these  primordial 
leasts,  which  are  to  act  as  the  seeds  and  primitives 
of  creation.  There  is  no  other  substance  from  which 
recipient  forms  may  be  created.7 

God,  the  Infinite  Esse,  must  needs  give  of  His 
own  substance  to  frame  creation.  This  is  the  sac- 
ramental gift,  as  of  His  flesh,  to  be  the  bread  and 
the  flesh  of  His  creatures. s 

The  primitive  substantial  of  creation  must  be 
formed  from  the  substance  of  the  Infinite  Esse. 
God  must  give  portions  of  His  own  substance  to 
be  the  substantia  prima  from  which  He  creates  all 
things.  God,  therefore,  must  first  finite  His  In- 
finity as  a  preparation  for  a  universe. 

The  mode  of  the  first  finiting.  The  concept 
of  the  accommodation  of  Infinity  to  finiteness,  in 
order  that  the  finite  may  exist,  arises  here.  How 
can  the  Infinite  God,  who  is  Substance  Itself,  finite 
His  Infinity,  without  destroying  His  own  non-finite- 
ness?  In  what  manner  can  the  accommodation  of 
the  Infinite  to  finiteness  be  given,  without  the  es- 

TD.  P.  46.    Principia.  part  I.  chap.  II.  f.    D.  L.  W.  282. 

BPrincipia,  part  I.  chap.  II.  1.  The  Infinite,  chap.  I.  sec. 
III.  5.  sec.  IV.  2.  D.  Wis.  I.  A.  E.  617.  Ath.  Cr.  pages  8. 
17.  19.  32.  41. 


3 


swedenborg's  cosmology. 


sential  infringement  of  the  Infinity  of  God,  and  of 
His  Infinite  Oneness  ? 

This  problem  is  perhaps  the  most  central  among 
the  problems  of  creation  ;  and  the  answer  will  qualify 
all  our  thoughts  of  God  the  Creator,  and  of  the  re- 
lation of  the  universe  to  Him. 

Swedenborg  approaches  this  problem  directly ; 
and  the  answer  he  gives  impresses  its  stamp  and 
feature  on  his  whole  system  of  the  universe.  It  un- 
derlies as  a  very  foothold  the  Theology  of  the  New 
Church,  and  is  regnant  in  it  from  first  to  last.  It 
conditions  alike  the  heavens  and  the  earths,  the  or- 
ganic and  the  inorganic  kingdoms. 

Swedenborg's  Definitions.  In  following  Swe- 
denborg we  approach  this  subject  in  a  series  of 
comparative  definitions  of  what  is  meant  by  Infinite 
and  finite:  a  series  covering  expanse,  origin,  dura- 
tion, characteristics  'of  substance,  and  activity  or 
motion. 

These  definitions  are  as  follows : 

Expanse,  in  relation  to  the  Infinite  signifies 
that  which  is  without  bound,  term,  or  limit  ;  when 
predicated  of  the  finite,  it  signifies  that  which  is 
comprised  within  definite  terminations,  that  which 
is  of  limited  extense,  bounded. 

Origin  cannot  be  predicated  of  the  Infinite,  since 
as  to  substance  the  Infinite  is  sclf-existent ;  is  not 


4 


THE  FINITING  OF  INFINITY. 


framed  or  put  together  of  something  in  prior  ex- 
istence ;  is  not  concreted  from  prior  entities.  But 
origin  is  predicated  of  all  finite  entities:  for  a  finite 
is  always  framed  or  put  together  of  parts  already 
existent;  always  owes  its  substance  to  something 
else,  to  something  prior  to  itself. 

Neither  can  duration  be  predicated  of  the  Infinite, 
since  it  is  without  bound  or  term,  without  beginning 
or  end,  always  was,  and  is,  and  will  be.  But  for  all 
finite  entities  there  are  distinct  ages,  epochs,  periods 
of  time,  prior  to  which  they  did  not  exist ;  and  an 
hour  in  which  they  began  to  be  formed.  There  is 
also  an  hour  in  which  they  are  broken  up  or  come 
to  an  end,  their  substance  being  scattered  to  enter 
into  combination  with  other  particles,  in  other  forms 
of  some  other  period  of  duration.  For  all  created 
entities  or  individuals, — save  the  universe  as  a 
whole,  solar  systems,  and  man, — have  such  an  end. 
Animals  have  it.  and  almost  all  inorganic  individua, 
although  the  latter  have  the  longest  duration. 

In  respect  to  characteristic  of  substance,  the  In- 
finite is  one  and  indivisible.  It  does  not  consist  of 
parts,  or  is  not  compounded  of  smaller  particles.  It 
is  one  purely  continuous  substance.0  In  it,  infinite 
things  are  distinctly  One. 

"Principia,  part  I.  chap.  II.  I  ;  A.  E.  1121  ;  and  in  the 
Writings  passim. 


5 


SWEDENBORG  S  COSMOLOGY. 


The  characteristic  of  finite  substance  is  that  it  is 
framed  of  myriads  of  distinct  particles.  It  there- 
fore consists  of  parts,  or  is  compounded  of  smaller 
discrete  particles  contiguous  to  each  other.  It  is  not 
a  continuous  substance.10 

And  finally  in  respect  to  activity  or  motion,  the 
Infinite  is  infinitely  active.  It  is  without  any  pass- 
ivity or  inertia.  It  is  therefore  frictionless.  The 
current  of  its  motion,  as  it  is  in  itself,  never  bounds, 
never  encloses,  nor  fihites,  that  is,  never  describes  a 
circle ;  for  to  describe  a  circle  of  any  diameter  is  to 
describe  and  bound  an  area  of  that  diameter.  In- 
finite motion  cannot  describe  an  area,  or  make  an 
enclosed  field. 

On  the  other  hand  a  Uniting  motion  is  a  motion 
the  current  of  which  defines  or  bounds,  and  dis- 
covers lines  of  least  resistance,  of  opposition,  of  re- 
action with  or  against  the  current.  The  simplest 
motion  which  describes  a  boundary  is  a  circular 
motion.  Therefore  a  finiting  motion  is  a  circling 
motion,  or  that  which  describes  a  circle  or  closed 
field  of  some  diameter.11    The  ideal  of  the  circular 

]0Principia,  part  I.  chap.  II.  I.  8;  chap.  III.  7;  The  In- 
finite, chap.  I.  sec.  IV.  2,  sec.  XV.  conclusion;  chap.  II. 
sec.  I.  6. 

"Principia.  part  I.  chap.  II.  21  ;  chap.  IV.  l8.  part  2. 
line  48. 


6 


THE  FINITING  OF  INFINITY. 

motion,  that  which  comprises  in  itself  every  type 
and  degree  of  circling  motion,  is  the  circulo-spiral, 
or  perpetually  vortical  motion.  ♦ 

The  Accommodation  of  the  Infinite  to  the 
Finite.  Under  which  of  these  five  definitions  can 
we  see  possible  a  first  accommodation  of  the  In- 
finite to  the  finite,  a  primal  finiting  of  the  Infinity  of 
God,  which  will  not  infringe  upon  the  Infinity  of  the 
Creator,  and  which  will  contain  the  seed  adequate 
to  the  purposes  of  creation  ? 

The  accommodation  of  the  Infinite  to  the  finite, 
under  the  first,  second,  and  third  heads,  viz.,  under 
expanse,  origin,  and  duration,  are  at  once  negatived  ; 
on  their  faces  they  are  absurd,  impossible,  and  in- 
competent to  the  purpose. 

The  accommodation  of  Infinity  to  finiteness  under 
the  fourth  head,  namely,  character  of  substance,  is 
also  negatived.  For  since  the  Infinite,  as  Sub- 
stance Itself,  is  a  unity  or  a  one,  purely  continu- 
ous, the  distinction  and  marking  off  of  the  portions 
thereof,  by  any  means  involving  severance,  cutting 
off.  separation,  while  it  would  indeed  finite  the  por- 
tions so  given  and  cut  off,  would  also  finite  the  re- 
mainder ;  and  so  in  destroying  the  continuity  of  the 
Infinite,  it  would  essentially  infringe  upon  the  one- 
ness of  the  Creating  Substance.    Moreover  that 


7 


swedenborg's  cosmology. 


which  is  severed  from  its  first  is  by  that  act  anni- 
hilated. 

Under  the  fifth  head,  activity  or  motion,  Sweden- 
borg  places  the  primal  accommodation  of  the  In- 
finite to  the  finite,  or  the  first  finiting  of  Infinity. 
Under  this  head  alone  accommodation  is  at  once 
possible  without  essential  infringement  of  the  non- 
finiteness  and  unity  of  the  Infinite,  and  adequate  to 
the  purpose ;  at  once  setting  aside,  distinguishing 
and  defining  portions  of  the  Infinite  Substance  to  be 
the  substantia  prima  and  see  l  of  creation  ;  and  by 
the  very  mode  of  defining,  imparting  to  the  por- 
tions thus  defined  and  appropriated,  certain  active 
powers  of  motion,  capable  of  being  a  further  means 
to  their  self-composition  or  concretion  into  a  series 
of  derivative  finites,  substantial,  or  substantiates ; 
and  abiding  as  a  spring  of  reflexing  motor  force  in 
all  things  of  creation  forever.  Moreover  in  finiting 
by  means  of  motion,  there  is  no  actual  severance 
from  the  substance  of  the  Infinite. 

The  Production  of  Vortex  Rings.  The  first 
finiting  of  Infinity,  is,  according  to  Swedenborg,  the 
production  of  minimal  and  simplest  points  of  circmo- 
spiral  motion,  that  is,  the  production  of  vortex  rings, 
small  as  points,  in  the  Substance  of  the  Infinite. 
The  interior  conatus  to  circulation  of  these  vortex 
points  is  circulo-spiral ;  so  that  the  whole  point  is 


8 


THE  FINITING  OF  INFINITY. 


not  only  in  a  vortex  flow,  but  also  gyres  continually 
around  its  own  axis.12 

So  long  as  the  vortex  flow  of  these  minimal  rings 
is  continued  and  sustained  by  the  will  of  God,  they 
continue  to  exist  as  entities  in  the  Substance  of  the 
Infinite ;  they  continue  in  one  aspect  distinct  and 
bounded,  enclosed  and  limited;  that  is,  the  circling 
motion  of  their  flow  is  a  first  delineation  of  finiting. 

These  simple  minimal  vortices  were  existent  in 
the  Infinite  before  any  finite  or  concrete  entity  had 
existence.13  They  are  to  be  called  the  medium  be- 
tween the  Infinite  and  the  finite.14  They  are  not 
only  the  primitives  of  the  first  substantial  or  com- 
posites of  creation,  but  they  are  its  force  and  life.15 
They  are  immediately  Divine  and  superlatively  per- 
fect.10 In  them  are  supremely  involved  the  ends  of 
the  universe,  its  human  result,  and  the  providence 
of  the  future.17 

The  Natural  Point.   The  natural  points,  there- 

12Principia,  part  I.  Chap.  II.  12.  21.  22;  Chap.  III.  19. 
13Principia,  part  I.  Chap.  II.  8.  12. 
14Principia,  part  I.  Chap.  II.  10. 

15Principia,  part  I.  Chap.  III.  6.  7.  II.  10;  The  Infinite, 
Chap.  I.  sec.  IV.  3. 

10Infinite,  Chap.  I.  last  page;  Chap.  I.  sec.  V. 

17The  Infinite,  Chap.  I.  sec.  XI,  2.  3;  Principia,  part  I. 
Chap.  II.  5. 


9 


S\Y liDENEORG  S  COSMOLOGY. 


fore,  are  the  first  substance  and  source  of  that  which, 
in  its  derivative  composition,  we  call  the  created 
universe.  They  are  the  inmost,  the  first  and  primi- 
tive both  of  the  spiritual  world  and  of  nature.18 
They  are  produced  by  the  Infinite,  and  are  the  im- 
mediate act  of  the  Infinite  finitiug  itself  by  reactive 
motion.  They  are  in  space  without  space  ;  for  the 
Infinite,  prior  to  this  first  finiting,  was  everywhere 
existent  without  space ;  for  space  was  not  until  the 
lower  finite  came  into  existence,  being  simultaneous 
and  coincident  with  that  act.  They  exist  in  all  space 
without  space  in  relation  to  the  Divine ;  but  in  rela- 
tion to  derivative  creation  there  is  in  them  the  first 
beginnings  and  motions  of  space.  Hence  space  and 
time  have  their  origin  in  God,  who  is  in  all  space  and 
time  without  space  and  time.19 

The  natural  points  or  first  simples  are  thus  the 
medium  between  the  Infinite  and  the  finite ;  they  are 
the  first  entia,  and  in  their  multitude  and  activity 
they  so  fill  all  the  spaces  of  the  universe  that  a 
vacuum  is  precluded.  Their  composite  is  the  first 
substantial. 

First  substantiate  are  the  first  boundary  of  mat- 
ter ;  that  is,  they  are  the  first  of  the  series  of  concrete 

18Ath.  Cr.  page  41. 
»T.  C.  R.  31. 


IO 


THE  FINITING  OF  INFINITY. 


substances,  the  beginning  and  end  of  the  Daedalian 
thread  from  which  the  compound  universe  is  woven. 
In  them  the  natural  points  or  primitives  become  as 
it  were  a  part  of  nature,  since  nature  begins  with 
them.  For  the  natural  points  have  in  them  an  end 
and  purpose  toward  the  creation  of  man,  for  the 
sake  of  whom  nature  is.  with  all  its  suns  and  stars 
and  solar  systems. 

For  the  leasts  and  greatests  of  every  series 
mutually  regard  each  other,  and  have  coincident  ex- 
istence in  the  Creative  Will.  Thus  the  least  vorticles 
of  motion  regard  the  greatest ;  the  motion  of  singu- 
lars regards  the  motion  of  mass ;  the  motion  of 
natural  points  regards  solar  centres  and  systems ; 
and  both  together,  operating  as  one  in  God,  regard 
the  production  of  man,  as  a  sensitive  microcosm, 
loving  God  and  reacting  to  Him. 

Tnii  productive  Action  of  these  Natural 
Points  is  as  follows: — 

The  perpetually  vortex  conatus  in  the  natural 
points,  or  first  simples  of  finition,  is  such  that  it  sets 
these  points  into  a  local  motion  or  gyre,  of  a  pat- 
tern emulous  of  its  interior  circulation.  This  is  of 
immense  importance  since  it  involves  the  law  and 
the  pattern  of  all  the  derivative  production  of  the 

20Principia,  part  I.  Cliap.  II.  22. 


II 


swedenborg's  cosmology. 


series  of  finites  or  substantials.20  And  from  this  it 
is  that  all  things  which  involve  an  end,  constitute  a 
circle.21 

All  the  motion  of  these  simples  is  thus  perpetu- 
ally reflexive  or  circular,  all  their  action,  all  the 
lines  in  which  they  flow.  For  what  they  are  within, 
that  they  do,  that  they  act.  That  which  is  the  pattern 
of  their  interior  conatus  or  endeavor,  that  they  re- 
produce in  all  their  derivative  motions.22 

Moreover,  the  perpetually  reflexive  flow  of  these 
vortex  points,  these  primitives  and  simples  of  frui- 
tion, involves  something  deeper,  more  living  still. 
In  them  is  present  in  very  figure  and  embodiment 
the  image  which  manifests  the  inmost  action  of 
love,  of  love  as  a  substance.  For  all  love  tends  to 
return  as  a  circle  to  the  source  from  which  it  came.23 
And  love  exists  as  a  substance  in  God  the  Creator.24 
There  is  thus  a  conatus  in  each  thing  of  creation  to 
return  to  its  source.  Therefore  the  primitive  force 
in  a  simple  is  most  perfectly  adaptable  and  modi- 
fiable along  all  human  building  lines ;  for  the  In- 
finite is  capable  of  varying  it  in  infinite  ways.25 

21A.  K.  260.  note  s. 

22Principia,  part  I.  Chap.  III.  19  part  2. 
"Divine  Love  X.  2. 
2*T.  C.  R.  76. 

2r,Principia,  part  III.  Chap.  II.  4.  parts  2.  3. 


12 


THE  FINITING  OF  INFINITY. 


Moreover  in  this  perpetually  reflexive,  or  circulo- 
vortical  flow,  all  powers  afterwards  manifested  in 
mechanics  are  actively  infolded.25 

It  is  indeed  this  perpetually  circling  character, 
both  of  their  interior  conatus.  and  of  their  operation, 
in  which  resides  the  power  which  enables  the  primi- 
tives, which  are  the  first  finiting  of  Infinity,  to  com- 
posite themselves,  to  flow  together  into  new  com- 
pound entities,  substantial,  or  finites;27  into  sub- 
stantials  or  finites  of  definite  form,  size,  power  of 
permanent  cohesion,  and  of  derivative  motion  ;2S  and 
in  fact  into  substantial  of  definite  powers  to  produce 
a  series  of  such  substantial,  or  finites.  or  concrete 
corpuscles,  of  five  descending  grades  or  degrees.29 

The  Primitives  of  the  Spiritual  Sun.  This 
series  of  finites  or  substantial  originating  in  the 
primitives,  points,  or  simples  of  the  Principia,30  are 
the  same  with  the  substantiates  originating  from 
the  primitives  of  the  Spiritual  Sun.31  In  the  per- 
petually refiexing  conatus  of  the  points  or  simples 
of  finition,  all  those  things  have  their  in-being,  which 

"Principia,  part  I.  Chap.  III.  24.  26;  Chap.  IV.  iS. 
27Principia,  part  I.  Chap.  III.  1-6. 
28Principia,  part  I.  Chap.  III.  11.  12.  14. 
"Principia,  part  I.  Chap.  IV.  2.  5.  16. 
3°Part  I.  Chap.  III.  2;  Chap.  IV.  2.  5.  16 
»D.  P.  6.  T.  C.  R.  33 


13 


swedenborg's  cosmology. 


exist  throughout  the  scries  of  finites  or  substan- 
tiates, successively  compounding  themselves,  even  to 
the  most  gross  and  ultimate,  such  as  we  see  exist- 
ing in  the  world.82 

The  importance  of  this  conatus  and  potcnev  of 
circular  motion  in  the  primitives  or  vortex  points,  is 
seen  when  we  consider  that  the  primitives  and  firsts 
of  finition  constitute  what  is  called  the  Spiritual  Sun, 
which  is  the  prime  substance,  the  first  finiting  of 
the  Infinity  of  God,  the  primitives  of  which  are  given 
to  be  primordial  seeds  of  creation.33  The  intrinsic 
circulo  spiral  motion  of  these  primitives  of  the  Spirit- 
ual Sun,  therefore,  acts  as  the  instrumental  means  in 
compounding  the  series  of  derivative  substantiates 
or  finites ;  a  series  composed  of  five  distinct  grades 
of  composite  vortex-ring  corpuscles,  destined  for 
distinct  grades  of  use,  both  in  the  composition  of 
the  successive  degrees  of  auras  or  atmospheres,  and 
in  the  composition  of  distinct  degrees  of  structure 
in  recipient  organic  formis,  reactive  or  reflexive  to 
the  Divine. 

Thus  by  means  of  the  perpetually  reflexive  mo- 
tion inhering  in  the  primitives  of  the  Spiritual  Sun, 
that  is,  in  the  firsts  or  simples  of  uniting,  a  series 

32Principia,  Part  I.  Chap.  III.  13. 
"T.  C.  R.  27.  33- 


14 


THE  FINITING  OF  INFINITY. 


of  substantial*  or  fmites  is  produced,  or  concreted, 
by  which  the  substances  and  forces  of  the  universe 
are  successively  finited  "more  and  more."' 

Moreover,  it  is  from  this  perpetually  reflexive  im- 
petus, in  the  primitives  or  simples  of  the  Spiritual 
Sun,  and  derived  from  them  into  all  their  composites 
or  substantiate, — embodying  the  generic  impulse  of 
love  as  a  substance  in  God, — that  the  elementaries 
or  active  atmospheres  derive  their  peculiar  and  char- 
acteristic habit  and  nature  of  motion  which  is  al- 
ways circular.  So  that  the  very  reaction  of  the 
auras  to  any  action,  or  beginning,  or  centre  of  in- 
citing force,  is  always  to  run  into  a  vortex  or  circ- 
ling gyre  ;34  nor  do  they  ever  move  by  other  than 
circling  lines.85 

It  is  from  the  same  primitive  substantial  cause 
that  animate  forms  are  characterized  by  some  kind 
of  interior  circulation  ;3e  for  the  order  and  round  of 
the  bloods  arises  from  this  deep  and  living  conatus 
in  the  leasts  of  the  substances  from  which  they  are 
framed. 

There  is  an  emulation  of  a  circulation  even  in  the 
non-animate  kingdom.  Vegetables  have  it ;  the  mole- 

8*Principia,  part  I.  25.  Chap.  II ;  chap.  III.  26,  27. 
35Principia.  part  I.  Chap.  VI.  33,  37,  38,  39;  part  II. 
Chap.  I.  I.  2;  A.  K.  288.  note  t.  260.  note  s. 
3«D.  Wis.  X.  3. 


r5 


swedenborg's  cosmology. 


cules  of  the  mineral  kingdom  have  it,  and  crystals 
themselves  strive  toward  it  internally.37  Moreover, 
in  order  that  the  molecules  of  the  mineral  kingdom 
may  not  exhale  and  emanate  themselves  out  of  ex- 
istence, by  the  ethers  which  flow  through  the  mole- 
cular pores  and  channels,  as  bloods  through  vessels, 
there  is  a  perpetual  renewal  of  the  form,  and  a  per- 
petual giving  forth  of  effluvial  spheres,  as  its  con- 
tribution to  the  finer  uses  of  the  world.  That  which 
has  not  some  type  of  circulation  does  not  exist,  or 
swiftly  ceases  to  exist,  dissolves,  dissipates.  Thus 
the  primitives  of  the  Spiritual  Sun  by  means  of 
their  circling  motion  give  some  stamp  and  feature 
of  themselves  upon  every  substantiate  form,  derived 
or  moulded  from  them, — the  image  of  the  Divine 
Love  going  forth  and  returning  to  Itself. 

The  essential  Characteristics  of  the  Nat- 
ural Point.  The  firsts  of  primordial  finiting,  the 
simples  and  natural  points  of  the  Principia,  stand- 
ing as  intermediate  between  the  Infinite  and  the 
finite,38  arc  the  same  with  the  primitives  and  simples 
of  the  work  On  the  Infinite.™  These  primitives  and 
simples  are  there  called  the  nexus  between  the  In- 
finite and  the  finite.    The   name  they  are  known  by 

"T.  C.  R.  499- 

38Principia,  part  I.  Chap.  II.  10.  12. 
39Chap.  I.  sec.  IV.  2. 


16 


THE  FINITING  OF  INFINITY. 


in  the  Sacred  Scriptures,  is  the  Only  Begotten,  the 
Son  from  eternity.40  They  are  themselves  infinite.*1 
They  are  the  first  creative  essence  mentioned  in  the 
Spiritual  Diary,  (n.  4847),  Itself  Divine  or  Infinite, 
and  Man  in  conatus  or  beginning,  (fieri),  or  Man 
reflcxivelv.  They  are  therefore  the  "Divine  Es- 
sence." related  to  the  Infinite  Esse,  as  the  Essence 
is  related  to  the  Esse,  in  the  True  Christian  Re- 
ligion (nos.  18,  36).  They  are  the  Existere  of  God 
Man  described  in  Divine  Love  and  Wisdom  (n,  14)  ; 
in  whom  Esse  and  Existere  arc  one,  yet  one  distinct- 
ly ;  the  Esse  being  the  soul  of  God  Man,  the  Ex- 
istere His  Divine  Body.  Of  the  Divine  Essence  the 
Spiritual  Sun  consists  :42  and  it  is  alive.43 

These  simples,  primitives,  or  points,  are  therefore 
not  dead,  but  are  living,  life  itself,  Infinite.  They 
are  not  the  fortuitous  points  "of  no  predication  and 
therefore  not  in  themselves  anything,"  nor  the  atoms 
of  Epicurus,  nor  the  monads  of  Leibnitz,  nor  the 
simple  substances  of  Wolf ;  and  so  are  not  what  is 
condemned  in  the  True  Christian  Religion,  n.  20,  and 
Divine  Providence ,  n.  6. 44    They  are  the  Infinites 

40Infinite,  Chap.  I.  sec.  X.  3,  4. 
"Ibid. 

«T.  C.  R.  29. 
«D.  L.  W.  163-166. 

"See  also  Infinite.  Chap.  I.  sec.  IV.  8,  49;  E.  A.  K. 
part  I.  612.  618.  622.  part  II.  242. 


17 


SWEDEN  BORG's  COSMOLOGY. 


of  God  Man,  and  the  origin  of  the  finites  of  the  uni- 
verse.*6 They  are  the  seeds  of  the  universe,  the  sole 
substance  of  which  all  substances  are  made.10  They 
involve  supremely  all  the  human  end  of  creation, 
sustainment,  providence,  redemption.47  For  ends 
are  in  the  Spiritual  Sun,  causes  in  the  spiritual 
world,  and  effects  in  the  natural  world  ;48  en  is  are 
then  Infinite.  Hence  in  the  finiting  conatus  of  the 
points  or  simples,  all  the  human  ends  of  the  created 
universe  have  their  in-being,  and  arc  supremely  in- 
volved and  embodied  in  them  ;  while  their  derivative 
activity  or  motion  presents  as  in  a  figure  the  uni- 
versal endeavor  of  love  to  return  as  by  a  circle  to 
its  source. 

Moreover,  as  has  already  been  indicated,  the  cir- 
cling figure  of  the  motion  of  the  primitives  is  the 
sole  instrumentality  needed,  to  enable  them  to 
conflow  together  by  myriads,  and  impel  them 
to  coalesce  into  compound  vortex  ring  corpuscles. 
These  are  the  substantial,  substantiates,  or  finites.49 

45D.  L.  YV.  17,  155,  169.    Principia,  part  III,  Chap.  I.  1. 

"Infinite,  Chap.  I.  sec.  IV.  2.  4.  5;  Principia,  part  I. 
Chap.  II.  20;  Chap.  III.  2.  6.  7-    D.  L.  W.  300. 

♦"Infinite,  Chap.  I.  sec.  IV.  4.  5.  sec.  V.  17.  compared 
with  sec.  XI.  2.  3.  and  sec.  XIV.  5. 

4SD.  L.  W.  154- 

"Principia,  part  [.  Chap.  III.    D.  P.  6. 


18 


THE  FINITING  OF  INFINITY. 


Here  the  finite  really  begins.  For  the  derivative 
corpuscles  or  substantiate  are  concrete,  but  the  com- 
ponent primitive  points,  or  simples  are  not.  There- 
fore the  latter  arc  not  to  be  called  finite,  but  only 
the  first  of  Uniting,  or  the  intermediate,  or  nexus, 
between  the  Infinite  and  the  finite,  as  was  shown 
above. 

These  finest  concrete  substantials.  or  first  finites, 
are  only  less  perfect  than  the  pure  simples  or  prim- 
itives themselves,  of  which  they  are  the  first  and 
only  direct  production.  For  while  the  primitives 
are  "immediately  Divine.''  the  first  finites  or  sub- 
stantials are  only  mediately  Divine  through  the 
primitives  or  simples.50 

The  First  Fixites,  or  simplest  concrete  substan- 
tials, are  bodies  of  a  vortex  ring  form ;  each  com- 
posed of  great  numbers  of  primitives  bound  to- 
gether into  a  cohering  aggregate  corpuscle  by  their 
common  circling  motion. 

These  finites  have  an  interior  circulation  coincid- 
ing with  the  reflective  endeavor  and  activity  of 
the  primitives,  which  is  actually  produced  by  the 
flow  of  those  primitives  in  them.  From  this  interior 
circulation  they  have,  all  of  them,  a  derivative  en- 
deavor and  potency  of  local  motion,  of  the  same 

50Infinite,  Chap.  II.  sec.  I ;  Chap.  I.  last  page. 


19 


swedenborg's  cosmology. 


general  reflexive  or  perpetually  circling  type  as  the 
motion  of  the  primitives.  For  with  them  also,  "as 
is  their  interior  circulation,  so  they  do,  so  they  move, 
so  they  act.''  But  the  diameter  of  this  composite 
substantial  is  vastly  larger,  and  its  velocity  of  motion 
and  momentum  in  collision,  is  greatly  less  than  that 
of  tli c  primitives. 

Thus  originated  the  first  substantial  composites 
from  the  primitives  of  the  Spiritual  Sun,  produced 
in  a  volume  vast  enough  to  fill  the  universe.  And  as 
it  were  instantly  in  and  from  their  volume,  by  means 
of  their  own  circling  motions  among  each  other,  a 
myriad  volume  of  second  substantiate  was  formed, 
swinging  on  towards  the  production  of  an  aura  or 
atmosphere  or  volume  of  bullae,  in  which  was  at- 
tained the  first  equilibrated  rest  of  creation.51 

The  Second  Finite.  The  second  substantiate 
are  related  to  the  first,  as  the  first  to  the  primitives. 
And  although  they  are  of  like  generic  form,  interior 
circulation  and  derivative  power  of  circling  or  or- 
bital motion,  these  second  unites  arc  still  larger,  still 
more  finited,  move  in  still  larger  orbits,  have  less 
velocity  of  movement,  and  a  weakened  force  of 
penetrative  impact. 

These  are  the  second  successives  of  accommoda- 

51Principia,  part  I.  Chap.  VI.  5. 


20 


THE  FINITING  OF  INFINITY. 


tion  and  finiting,  produced  from  the  primitives 
of  the  Spiritual  Sun.  And  the  volumes  of  the  first 
and  second  finites  are  the  two  radiant  belts  under 
the  Spiritual  Sun,  above  the  angelic  heaven.52  The 
corresponding  belts  below  the  natural  sun  are  the 
volumes  of  third  and  fourth  finites,  which  are  the 
primitives  of  the  family  of  metals.  The  fifth  finites 
are  formed  near  the  earth,  and  are  able  to  exist  only 
in  the  vicinage  of  earths. 

The  First  Aura.  Next  in  order  after  the  first 
and  second  degrees  of  finiting,  or  the  creation  of 
volumes  of  first  and  second  finites,  follows  the  for- 
mation of  the  first  atmosphere,  or  the  first  plane  of 
the  Divine  as  to  Use, — the  first  and  universal  aura 
of  the  Principia,  the  Infinite  and  the  Economy, — 
the  first  created  volume  of  elastic  bullular  forms. 

This  is  the  third  successive  under  the  Spiritual 
Sun,53  the  third  thing  brought  forth  ;  the  atmosphere 
at  once  of  the  celestial  heaven,  and  of  the  whole  uni- 
verse ;  the  particular  atmosphere  by  which  the  Lord 
is  present,  as  in  firsts  so  in  lasts ;  as  within  so  with- 
out; as  in  heavens  immediately  so  also  immediately 
in  all  His  world.34   It  is  the  first  proceeding  of  the 

5=A.  C.  7270.     H.  H.  120. 
"A.  C.  7270. 

64A.  C.  7270.  7004.  3627.  T.  C.  R.  63.  70.  E.  A.  K.  part 
I.  635;  part  II.  312.  339. 


21 


SWEDENBOfiG  S  COSMOLOGY. 


Lord,  formed  as  use  or  atmosphere,  going  forth  and 
filling  both  worlds,  the  spiritual  and  the  natural, 
operating  the  effects  of  the  ends  of  creation ;  for  it 
is  the  supreme  conjugial  sphere.68  In  accordance 
with  this  we  find  that  the  human  formative  sub- 
stance, the  soul,  the  human  internal,  the  human 
spirituous  fluid,  which  receives  the  influx  of  the  life 
of  God,  is  formed  from  and  in  this  aura.50  And 
moreover  this  first  aura  describes  a  vortex  and  uni- 
verse embracing  and  directing  all  other  vortices  or 
universes  ;  and  it  is  that  supreme  aura  without  which 
the  minutest  forms  could  not  be  held  together  in 
connection  ;  nor  could  effects  flow  from  their  first 
causes,  according  to  the  order  of  nature.57 

"C.  L.  386.   T.  C.  R.  63.  70. 

s«E.  A.  K.  part  II.  168.  221.  228.  245. 

S7E.  A.  K.  part  II.  272.  312. 


22 


CHAPTER  II. 


THE  DERIVATION  OF  THE  FIRST 
SUBSTANCE  OF  CREATION. 

A  Rhsume.  We  have  already  shown  that  the  In- 
finite Esse  is  Substance  in  Itself,  that  it  does  not 
consist  of  a  sum  of  bounded  particles,  that  it  is  a 
purely  continuous  substance,58  but  that  creation  be- 
gins with  myriads  of  minimal  leasts  finited  in  the 
Substance  of  the  Infinite.  These  primal  points  are 
afterwards  massed,  concreted,  arranged  by  God  into 
forms  or  individua,  and  held  together  by  Him.  For 
to  create  is  not  only  to  cause  to  be.  or  to  bring  into 
existence,  but  afterwards  to  hold  together. 

Tbe  first  finiting  of  Infinity,  then,  is  the  produc- 
tion of  vortico-spiral  rings  of  motion,  small  as 
points,  in  the  substance  of  the  Infinite ;  these  are  the 
primitives  of  the  Spiritual  Sun,  and  the  seeds  of  the 
universe  from  which  all  creation  is  framed  by  God. 

The  only  finiting  in  the  substance  of  the  Infinite, 
possible  to  take  place  without  severance  or  infringe- 
ment of  the  Substantial  Unity  of  God,  is  a  finiting 
by  means  of  motion  which  delineates  a  boundary 

"A.  E.  1 121. 


23 


swedenborg's  cosmology. 


and  encloses  and  marks  an  area ;  and  the  simplest 
motion  that  can  enclose  and  bound  an  area,  is  a 
circling  motion.  The  ideal  and  fulness  of  a  circling 
motion  is  the  circulo-spiral,  or  perpetual  vortical. 
In  it  are  summed  all  possible  circling  motions  of  all 
degrees  and  types ;  and  in  it  all  the  powers  of  Me- 
chanics, both  active  and  passive,  exist  in  potency. 

We  have  also  observed  that  Love  in  God  is  a  sub- 
stance, and  that  the  nature  £>f  all  love  is  perpetually 
to  return  as  in  a  circle  to  its  source.  Hence  the 
activity  of  love  as  a  substance  flows  into  recircling 
lines ;  supremely  so  in  the  primitives  and  firsts  of 
finiting,  which  embody,  and  are,  the  creative  love  of 
God  in  immediate  outgo,  activity,  and  gift.  And  all 
things  framed  and  concreted  thereof  show  feature 
of  a  like  reflexing  potency  and  activity. 

It  is  from  this  ground,  and  no  other,  that  all  the 
atmospheres,  which  are  four,  successively  formed, 
move  by  circling  and  recircling  lines.  At  every 
touch  they  flow  into  such  lines ;  nor  can  they  move, 
act,  or  react,  in  any  other  way  or  path.  The  celes- 
tial atmosphere,  or  first  aura,  has  this  character  es- 
sentially ;  and  the  others,  though  grosser  in  consti- 
tution, are  not  much  behind  it  in  their  aptitude  to 
run  into  vortices  and  circuits  at  every  touch, 
stimulus,  or  strain  acting  upon  them.  It  is  their 
form  of  reaction. 


24 


FIRST  SUBSTANCE. 


In  the  organic  world  it  is  the  same.  It  is  from  the 
same  deep  cause  in  the  perpetually  reflexing  or  cir- 
cling motion  in  these  seeds  of  creation,  (supremely 
involving  as  they  do  the  living  ends  of  the  created 
universe),  that  bloods  arise  and  are  established,  and 
circulations  run  their  rounds.  The  vegetative  world 
also  partakes  in  this  gyre  and  power.  And  the  min- 
eral world  has  its  emulation  thereof.  Even  the  dust 
of  the  ground  is  framed  and  compacted  of  the  prim- 
itives of  the  Spiritual  Sun.  For  there  is  no  other 
substance  given  of  which  creation  is  formed.  And 
the  striving  and  tendency  of  these  primitives  of  the 
Spiritual  Sun,  from  which  they  are  made,  is  in 
them,  even  in  their  far  off  concreteness. 

We  have  also  seen  that  the  points  or  primitives  of 
the  Spiritual  Sun  are  not  inert,  nor  quiescent.  And 
what  they  are  in  conatus,  the  like  they  are  in  acf. 
They  gyre  about  among  themselves  perpetually,  in 
reflexing,  recircling  orbits,  patterned  after  their 
inner  endeavor.  This  circling  and  reflexing  mo- 
tion, pattern  of  their  own  interior  conatus  and  flow, 
is  the  very  thing,  the  very  power  and  action,  which 
carries  the  endeavor  of  creative  love  to  farther  ulti- 
mation,  governs  the  form  of  that  ultimation,  acts  in 
it  as  the  spring  of  new  and  emulous  endeavor,  and 
serves  as  the  efficient  instrument  of  the  orderly  con- 
fluence and  composition  of  the  primitives  into  a 


25 


swedenborg's  cosmology. 


series  of  derivative  finites  or  substantiate  of  five 
grades  or  degrees.59  But  as  they  are  produced  in  a 
series,  they  ever  increase  in  size,  with  lessening 
velocity  and  penetrative  force  of  impact;  although 
the  larger  they  arc.  the  larger  is  the  diameter  of  the 
vortical  orbit  they  circle.  By  this  series  of  derivative 
substantiate  the  universe  is  successively  finited  more 
and  more. 

The  First  Atmosphere  and  its  Uses  in  the 
Macrocosm  and  Microcosm.  The  third  thing 
brought  forth  from  the  Spiritual  Sun,  is  an  atmo- 
sphere. This  is  the  first  atmosphere  or  aura,  the 
third  successive,  received  into  the  celestial  heaven, 
and  extended  throughout  the  universe  to  the  ulti- 
mates  thereof.00  For  that  which  proceeds  from  the 
inmost  extends  everywhere.01  This  is  the  Divine 
proceeding  from  the  Lord,  which  is  called  the 
sphere  or  atmosphere,62  which  fills  both  worlds,  the 
spiritual  and  the  natural,  which  operates  the  effects 
of  those  ends  which  the  Lord  predestined  at  crea- 
tion, and  for  which  He  provides  ever  since  the  crea- 
tion,— the  very  conjugial  itself.    For  from  this  aura 

8BPrincipia,  part  T.  Chap.  IV.  18.  par.  2.  3.  4. 
60A.  C.  7270. 
"A.  C.  10188. 
82C.  L.  386. 


26 


FIRST  SUBSTANCE. 


and  in  it  is  generated  the  human  soul,  by  which  the 
Lord  weaves  the  organic  man.03 

This  first  atmosphere,  proximate  to  the  Spiritual 
Sun,  is  of  the  very  essence  of  that  Sun.64  It  is  the 
first  aura  of  the  Principia  and  the  Economy,  with- 
out which  no  effects  could  flow  from  their  first  causes 
according  to  order.65  Generated  from  this  first  or 
universal  aura,  the  human  soul  receives  the  life  of 
God  immediately  ;  and  in  this  is  the  ground  of  hu- 
man immortality.68  For  the  Lord  enters  with  it, 
frames,  sustains,  and  dwells  within  the  human  or- 
ganism or  individual  forever. 

This  aura,  then,  is  the  plane  and  determinant  of 
the  soul,  or  human  spirituous  fluid,  or  human  forma- 
tive substance,  which  therefore  derives  from  this 
aura,  or  first  atmosphere  of  the  universe,  its  own 
power  of  forming,  by  descent  and  derivation,  all  the 
degrees  of  the  human  form  in  mind  and  body.67 

Moreover,  as  is  the  rank,  use,  and  office  of  the 
formative  substance  in  the  microcosm,  so  is  the 
rank,  use,  and  office  of  the  first  aura  in  the  macro- 
cosm.68 

"Compare  C.  L.  204  and  183. 

"D.  L.  W.  300. 

65E.  A.  K.  Part  II.  272. 

«6E.  A.  K.  part  II.  245.  352.  168.  300.  350. 

"E.  A.  K.  part  I.  635.  636. 

«SE.  A.  K.  part  II.  228.  221.  274.  276 


27 


swedenborg's  cosmology. 


This  first  aura,  third  from  the  primitives  of  flni- 
tion,  from  the  Spiritual  Sun,  in  one  sole  unique 
volume  fills  the  extense  of  the  universe.69  It  is  the 
universal  atmosphere  by  which  the  Lord  is  imme- 
diately present  and  immanent  alike  in  the  universe 
as  He  is  in  heaven  ;  and  acts  alike  upon  and  in  the 
lasts  of  order,  as  upon  and  in  the  firsts  ;  without 
which  indeed  there  would  be  no  sustentative  ground 
in  the  universe  for  the  Lord's  immediate  presence 
and  operation  in  all  things  from  first  to  last.70 

As  belonging  to  the  human  conjugial  sphere,  or 
being  that  sphere,71  it  is  the  very  sphere  of  religion 
itself,  and  of  the  Church;  and  it  is  that  universal 
sphere  or  atmosphere  of  the  Divine  as  to  use  or 
operation,  which  fills  all  the  natural  world  and  all 
the  spiritual  world,  and  elevates  all  to  heaven.71 
Being  the  most  universal  and  most  elevated  of  all, 
it  is  that  by  which  all  things  are  created,  sustained, 
and  held  together,  and  which  effects  all  arrange- 
ments into  order.  It  is  both  creation  and  provi- 
dence.73   It  is  that  primal  plane  of  the  Divine  pro- 

60E.  A.  K.  part  II.  312.  339;  Principia,  part  I.  Chap.  VI. 
39-  50. 

™A.  C.  7270. 

71 C.  L.  222-225,  386-397,  434  ct  seq. 

"T.  C.  R.  652. 

"A.  C.  6483.  6482.  6338. 


28 


FIRST  SUBSTANCE. 


ceeding,  formed  as  atmosphere,  by  which  the 
heavens  were  created,  and  all  the  worlds  of  the  uni- 
verse.74 

The  internal  Construction  of  the  First 
Aura.  The  first  aura  is  not  in  the  nature  of  a  third 
substantiate  or  finite,  or  a  new,  larger,  more  com- 
pounded vortex-ring  corpuscle.  It  is  a  combination 
of  the  two  grades  of  finites  already  in  existence,  the 
first  and  second.  These  two  compounded  make  a 
finest  bullular  or  foam-like  form,  very  flexible,  very 
elastic,  constituting  a  volume  or  sphere,  extended  in 
the  Infinite,  vast  enough  to  fill  the  universe. 

The  walls  or  envelopes  of  the  particles  or  bullae 
of  this  aura  are  formed  of  the  second  grade  of  finites 
or  substantial,  set  side  by  side,  operating  in  long  re- 
circling  lines.  Within  this  envelope,  certain  un- 
combined  first  finites  play  in  their  free  reflexive  ac- 
tivity. They  are  called  the  first  actives.  These  in- 
terior active  spaces  are  the  souls  of  the  bullae;  the 
envelopes  which  encircle  and  finite  the  active  spaces 
are  the  bodies  of  the  bullae. 

This  elastic  bullular  aura  is  the  first  form  created 
that  is  able  to  transmit  light,  for  it  is  the  first  form 
that  is  capable  of  elastic  reciprocation.  And  the 
whole  volume  of  this  marvellous  aura,  in  its  whole 

74Ath.  Cr.  page  41 ;  A.  E.  726. 


29 


swedenborg's  cosmology. 


and  in  each  bulla,  is  kept  forever  in  the  stream  and 
rhythm  of  the  life  of  God  Man,  and  everywhere 
beats  and  pulsates  with  the  cardiac  motion  of  the 
Spiritual  Sun. 

These  two  things,  the  bullular  structure  and  the 
perpetual  expansion  and  contraction,  characterize 
every  atmosphere  or  aura,  from  the  first  to  the  last. 
All  the  planes  of  the  Divine  proceeding  from  the 
Spiritual  Sun,  formed  successively  into  four  auras, 
are  bullular  or  foam-like  structures ;  and  all  are 
kept  in  a  rhythmic  beating  of  alternate  expan- 
sion and  contraction.  Although  the  bullae  are  suc- 
cessively larger,  and  the  cardiac  beating  increas- 
ingly reluctant  and  slow  in  the  descending  series, 
yet  all  four  of  the  auras  are  kept  forever  in  the 
stream  of  such  alternate  expansion  and  contraction, 
or  they  would  lose  their  pristine  elementary  or  atmo- 
spheric character.75  But  this  animatory  motion  is 
derived  to  each  aura,  or  the  bullae  thereof,  direct  or 
indirect  from  its  source  in  the  Spiritual  Sun.  The 
one  and  universal  volume  of  the  first  aura  derives  this 
motion  from  the  Spiritual  Sun  immediately.  The 
second  aura  derives  it  mediately  through  the  natural 
sun ;  the  third  through  the  second  aura,  and  the 
fourth  through  the  third. 

75A.  K.  392,  note  o. 


30 


FIRST  SUBSTANCE. 


In  the  first  atmosphere,  which,  as  we  have  said,  is 
the  third  successive  from  the  primitives  of  finking, 
all  these  things  are  in  their  supreme,  and  as  it  were 
incomprehensible  to  the  lower  sensory  and  thought ; 
so  elevated  and  so  active  are  they.  76  Yet  we  may 
conceive  of  it,  by  elevation  of  thought,  as  a  marvel- 
lous pulsating  aura,  extended  through  the  universe, 
spiritual  and  natural,  in  volume  wide  as  creative 
thought  and  operation,  brought  forth  in  the  Infinite 
Esse  of  God ;  everywhere  throbbing,  and  in  all  its 
bullae  beating  in  and  out,  in  rhythm  with  the  Spirit- 
ual Sun,  where  the  cardiac  and  pulmonic  motion  of 
the  Divine  acts  perpetually.  It  is  from  this  won- 
drous protoplasm  of  the  universe,  this  living  plasm, 
this  homo-plasm,  that  we  are  given  to  understand 
that  the  created  universe  is  organic.77  And,  as  we 
have  already  seen,  the  origin  of  the  human  organic 
form  is  in  this  universal  aura,  and  the  human  spirit- 
uous fluid,  the  human  formative  substance,  is  gen- 
erated from  it,  even  in  all  men  on  every  earth. 

This  Human  Spirituous  Fluid,  the  human  in- 
ternal, is  not  a  mind,  it  is  not  a  body ;  it  is  a  blood, 
supremely  fluent,  a  sublime  essence,  the  life  itself 
of  man.  It  is  not  our  own,  although  it  forms, 
builds,  makes  us  men,  and  holds  us  individual  and 

T6E.  A.  K.  Part  I.  635;  part  II.  312;  De  Fibra.  290. 
"S.  D.  3576.  3577. 


31 


swedenborg's  cosmology. 


one.  It  is  wise  for  us,  elevates,  sustains,  and  strives. 
It  is  the  Lord  with  us,  since  it  lives  the  life  of  God, 
ami  not  our  own.78  By  it  the  Lord  is  immediately 
present  with  and  in  mpn,  whether  he  be  in  heaven 
or  hell;  though  the  man  live  at  one  side  of  the 
universe  or  the  other,  be  bodied  upon  our  little 
earth,  or  on  an  earth  in  the  remotest  bound  of  the 
universe.  In  it  all  who  are  human,  all  in  the  uni- 
verse, are  one.  For  the  aura  which  generates  it  is 
one  and  universal,  and  looks  and  acts  to  one  uni- 
versal end.70  It  is  as  wise  in  the  unborn  babe  as  in 
the  sage."0  Though  suns  and  solar  systems  be  dis- 
persed, it  would  remain  unharmed,  as  the  aura  that 
gave  it  birth.81  It  flows  as  life  and  light  into  every 
plane  of  our  minds,  having  all  the  wisdom  of  crea- 
tion connate  in  it,  the  abundance  of  which  shall  be 
ours,  so  soon  as  we  present  the  cups  meet  to  be 
filled  with  such  wine.82  And  it  flows  into  the  whole 
body,  also,  and  all  the  viscera,  with  instant  and 
immediate  providence. 

7SS.  D.  2829,  2835.  2836.  E.  A.  K.  part  I.  311,  part  II 
238.  390. 

™E.  A.  K.  pari  II.  294;  T.  C.  R.  366. 
»E.  A.  K.  part  II,  294;  The  Soul,  134;  T.  C.  R.  166-169. 
R1Adv.  919.    K.  A.  K.  part  II.  350. 
8-E.  A.  K.  part  IT.  29-).  29:.  293.  296-298;  T.  C.  R.  154- 
366;  S.  D.  4016. 


32 


FIRST  SUBSTANCE. 


Such  are  the  qualities,  the  predicates,  the  rank, 
the  office,  of  the  human  spirituous  fluid  or  sou1,  as 
given  in  the  Economy,  the  Animal  Kingdom,  and 
the  Principia.  Such  in  the  succession  from  the  In- 
finite is  the  rank,  office,  and  predication  of  the 
primal  aura  in  the  scheme  of  God's  creation  of  the 
univers?. 

This  human  spirituous  fluid,  in  its  circling  outgo 
and  return,  outlines  all  the  vessels  and  structures  of 
the  four  degrees  of  human  faculties.83  It  is  not  a 
brain,  nor  a  fibre,  tissue  or  membranous  structure, 
or  a  mind,  but  it  is  verily  a  fluid,  a  blood,  and  thus 
Swedenborg  calls  it  an  essence.  It  is  above  imagina- 
tion. It  partakes  of  Life.  It  is  far  above  the  "ana- 
tomical sphere."  It  is  the  motive  and  determinant 
principle,  the  life  and  essence  of  all  our  human 
form.84  Swedenborg  says,  "words  fail  us  to  express 
what  it  is,  for  words  are  taken  from  a  lower  sphere." 
Still  we  must  use  words;  and  the  use  of  the  term 
fluid  or  blood  marks  a  necessary  distinction,  since 
we  know  the  distinction  between  a  fluid  and  its  ves- 
sel, or  between  blood  and  tissue,  between  the  con- 
tent and  the  containant. 

The  Simple  Fibre.    This  flowing  human  in- 

«SE.  A.  K.  part  II.  283.  284.  289.  291.  292. 
"The  Soul,   159;   De  Fibra,  249,  252,  269;   E.   A.  K. 
part  II.  311. 


33 


swedenborg's  cosmology. 


ternal,  however,  this  human  spirituous  fluid  and  soul, 
is  not  the  whole  organic  stake  which  the  human 
form  possesses  in  the  first  aura.  From  a  portion  of 
the  substance  of  its  own  flowing  stream,  compressed, 
condensed,  it  forms  as  it  were  the  analogue  of  a 
tunic  or  vessel,  to  clothe  and  garment  its  streaming 
substance.  It  gives  a  portion  of  its  own  self  sub- 
stance to  be  used  to  frame  a  reflexing  containant 
vessel,  which  becomes  something  like  a  membrane.*5 
This  tunic  is  sensitive,  alive,  wonderful.89  and  is  as 
to  substance  a  compressed  and  compacted  form  of 
that  supreme  fluid,  which  "is  perfectly  alive  in  all 
its  singulars  or  individual  parts.87 

This  is  the  most  eminent  fibril  or  tunic,  wonderful 
beyond  measure  or  imagination,  which  transmits  the 
human  formative  substance,  the  human  spirituous 
fluid  ;  and  from  which  all  other  forms  and  substances 
of  the  human  organism,  sensitive  or  motor,  receive 
the  form  of  their  existence.88 

The  Celestial  Cortex.  The  first  determination 
or  use,  which  the  human  internal  or  soul  makes  of 
this  fibril,  is  to  weave  therewith  the  sensitive  and 
motor  organism  of  a  plane  of  supereminent  faculty ; 

BSE.  A.  K.  part  II.  296.  297. 
8GDe  Fibra,  250,  et  scq. 
8"E.  A.  K.  part  II.  352. 
88De  Fibra,  249-256. 


34 


FIRST  SUBSTANCE. 


an  organic  structure  and  faculty  of  celestial  mind  and 
life ;  to  become  its  own  immediate  consort  on  the 
plane  of  the  first  aura, — a  sort  of  celestial  cortex,  as 
it  •were,  a  simple  full  celestial  brain,  to  act  as  its 
own  proximate  correspondent,  its  own  form  an^ 
body.89 

This  is  the  human  faculty,  the  supra-mental 
faculty,  the  celestial,  which  the  human  soul  forms 
first, — the  celestial  cortex  founded  in  the  first  aura 
as  the  eye  is  founded  in  the  ether,  or  the  ear  is  found- 
ed in  the  air,  as  the  universal  human  is  founded  in 
God.  And  because  this  is  the  first  form  of  the  hu- 
man, which  the  Lord  creates  after  the  very  soul 
itself,  without  which  no  other  human  organic  is  de- 
termined, no  cortical  glands,  no  fibres,  nor  weaving 
body,00  therefore,  this  inmost  or  celestial  cortex 
may  be  called  the  first  organic,  or  membranous  hu- 
man plane,  where  finite  bounded  man  first  begins  to 
be  man,  existent,  objectized,  recipient.  This  also  is 
given  in  the  father's  seed.91 

Since  this  celestial  faculty,  this  inmost  human 
cortex,  exists  in  all  human  beings  in  the  universe, 

"The  Soul,  127.  128.  166. 
00The  Soul,  134.  126. 

•'Posthumous  Tracts:  Origin  and  Propagation  of  the 
Soul,  Chap.  II. 


35 


swedenborg's  cosmology. 


the  way  to  it  may  be  opened,02  and  man  may  live 
the  celestial  life,  or  belong-  to  the  celestial  heaven. 
And  as  the  first  aura,  in  which  the  life  of  this  cor- 
tex is  founded,  is  one  and  universal  for  all  earths 
and  solar  systems  of  the  created  universe,  so  all 
men  from  all  earths,  in  whom  this  degree  of  the  hu- 
man organism  is  opened,  dwell  in  one  common 
heaven.93 

This  simple  cortex,  or  simple  cortical  substance 
is  the  truly  celestial  form.94  It  is  the  simplest, 
purest,  most  eminent  of  all  the  organs,  and  at  the 
same  time  the  supreme  sensitive  and  compositive  of 
the  human  form.98  It  is,  as  a  faculty,  as  wise  in  the 
embryo  as  in  the  adult  and  the  sage.04 

In  all  the  operations  of  the  cerebellum,  and  in  the 
cerebrum  itself  during  sleep,  every  force  begins  in 
the  simple  cortex,  the  celestial  organic,  or  pure  in- 
tellect. A  defect  alone  of  instrumental  causes,  or 
intermediates,  hinders  its  full  act  in  the  cerebrum, 
during  waking  hours.97  It  cannot  be  instructed  from 
below  or  from  the  outside,  for  it  is  already  full  of 

»2The  Soul,  155. 
B3A.  C.  6701,  7078. 

"The  Soul,  135 ;  De  Fibra,  251-254.  279. 
••The  Soul,  126. 
••The  Soul,  134.  155. 
"The  Soul,  171,  132. 


36 


FIRST  SUBSTANCE. 


the  arcana  of  nature  and  the  created  universe. es 
It  presents  already  simultaneously  in  itself,  all  that 
the  middle  mind,  or  the  rational,  will  ever  attain 
to  successively.09  It  is  called  the  pure  intellectory 
or  intellect,100  which  mediates  between  the  soul  it- 
self, and  the  mind,  or  understanding,  the  rational.101 
It  would  seem  therefore  to  be  that  intellectual 
referred  to  in  A.  C.  1495.  where  the  warning  is 
given  not  to  proceed  from  scientific  and  rational 
truths  to  the  celestial,  without  intellectual  truths  as 
media. 

This  celestial  or  super- rational  form  and  cortex, 
then,  is  that  most  holy  place  and  degree,  in  man, 
viewed  as  a  little  tabernacle  for  the  Divine,  where 
the  ark  of  the  covenant  of  life  abides ;  and  God 
alone  is  the  light  thereof. 

The  soul  builds  this  plane  answerable  to  the 
primal  aura;  but  there  are  four  successive  atmo- 
spheres, or  auras,  which  are  as  it  were  the  four 
apartments  of  the  Divine  Proceeding,  as  the  Taber- 
nacle in  the  universe,  where  God  appoints  to  meet 
with  man.  To  these  four  atmospheres  are  formed, 
or  in  them  are  founded,  as  many  successive  fibrous 

9SThe  Soul,  134.  166. 
"The  Soul,  131,  132. 
100The  Soul,  125,  166,  171. 
•  ioiThe  Soul,  136. 

37 


swedenborg's  cosmology. 

or  membranous  planes  in  man,  the  celestial,  the 
rational  or  intermediate  mind,  the  natural  sensory 
and  the  physical  itself.  But  the  full  consideration 
of  these  must  be  reserved  for  a  future  occasion ; 
and  so  let  us  return  to  the  general  subject  of  the 
auras  themselves. 

The  Second  Aura.  The  first  aura  is  one  and 
in  one  volume  throughout  the  universal  creation, 
spiritual  and  natural ;  but  the  second  aura  is  not 
brought  forth  as  one  volume,  but  as  many.  For 
there  are  as  many  volumes  of  second  aura  as  there 
are  starry  suns  in  the  created  universe. 

For  this  reason  the  celestial  heaven,  which  is 
founded  in  the  first  and  universal  atmosphere  of 
creation,  is  one  heaven.  But  the  spiritual  heaven, 
which  is  founded  in  the  second  aura,  is  not  one  but 
many ;  it  consists  of  as  many  heavenly  societies,  or 
heavens,  as  are  the  number  of  the  starry  suns  of 
creation  ;102  each  society  or  heaven  thereof  being 
founded  in  a  specific  volume  and  vortex  of  second 
aura,  generated  by  and  around  its  own  star  or  sun. 
Thus  as  the  first  aura  is  answerable  to  the  highest 
or  inmost  place  of  the  tabernacle  where  God  is  the 
sufficient  light  thereof,  the  second  aura  may  stand 
as  the  holy  place,  the  second  room  of  the  tabernacle 

102T.  C.  R.  160. 


38 


FIRST  SUBSTANCE. 

heavens,  where  the  candles  of  the  stars  give  light. 

The  Bull.*:  of  the  Second  or  Magnetic  Aura 
are  larger  than  those  of  the  first,  and  cannot  be 
kept  in  their  palpitant  motion  by  the  finer  action  of 
the  Spiritual  Sun  directly  or  without  a  medium. 
The  bullae  are  not  only  larger,  but  at  the  same  time 
stiffer  and  slower  in  elastic  expansion  and  contrac- 
tion ;  they  are  of  less  velocity  and  aptitude  to  mo- 
tion, and  their  circling  orbits  are  of  a  lower  type. 
The  living  cardiac  motions  of  the  Spiritual  Sun  are 
too  rapid,  too  subtle,  too  fine,  to  set  the  stiffer, 
larger  bullae  of  the  second  aura  into  consonant  pul- 
satile motion.  But  they  can  be  maintained  in  their 
rhythmic  expansion  and  contraction  by  the  ani- 
matory  motion  of  the  Spiritual  Sun.  acting  as  a 
large  centre  or  soul,  in  and  by  the  medium  of  the 
gross  radiant  envelope  'of  primitive  metallic  sub- 
stantial and  fourth  Unites,  which  form  the  encrust- 
ing body  of  a  star  or  sun,  such  as  we  behold  it  with 
our  natural  eyes. 

For  natural  suns  as  we  see  them  are  double  suns. 
The  Spiritual  Sun  is  their  centre  and  soul,  the  very 
active  central  space  within ;  and  fiery  least  metallic 
substantial s  are  their  body.  The  two  act  as  one 
sun.  From  this  origin  all  things  are  double.  As 
men  we  live  in  a  double  world,  the  spiritual  and 
the  natural ;  we  are  double  men,  having  a  soul  and 


30 


swedenborg's  cosmology. 


a  body.  All  things  that  exist  in  the  world  of  effects 
are  double  things,  having  as  it  were  a  soul  and  a 
body,  or  a  spiritual  cause  and  a  natural  effect,  or  a 
spiritual  active  center  and  a  natural  envelope  or 
body,  which  act  together  as  one  cause.  It  is  thus 
that  the  law  of  correspondence  arises. 

Moreover,  the  first  and  second  successive,  con- 
stituting the  two  radiant  belts  below  the  Spiritual 
Sun,  do  not  afford  materials  sufficing  for  the  stiffer 
envelopes  of  the  larger  bullae  of  the  second  aura. 
For  them  some  substantial  or  finites,  more  highly 
compounded  still,  are  requisite ;  some  new  finites  of 
larger  mass,  lowered  velocity,  and  widened  circle 
of  motion.*  These  are  the  third  finites,  formed  by 
compression  and  composition  of  the  particles  or 
bullae  of  the  first  aura ;  which  together  with  the 
fourth  fTnites  form  the  mass  of  the  natural  sun  as 
seen  by  our  eyes,  that  is,  the  mass  of  the  fiery  me- 

*Compression  as  an  agent  or  engine  in  the  concretion  of 
substance  begins  only  with  the  production  of  the  third 
substantiates  or  finites.  With  the  first  and  second  grades 
of  finites,  compression  does  not  enter  as  a  cause  of  forma- 
tion. Their  only  agent  of  formation  or  composition,  their 
only  bond  of  connection,  is  the  motion  of  their  component 
particles  or  vortex-points  in  like  circular  orbits.  This  is 
the  only  tie  that  holds  them  together.  (Principia.  Part  I, 
chap.  III.  12.) 


4Q 


FIRST  SUBSTANCE. 


tallic  shell  or  envelope  around  the  active  centre  of 
the  Spiritual  Sun  within. 

The  Accommodation  of  the  Spiritual  Sun. 
In  order  that  the  Spiritual  Sun  might  form  the 
second  degree  or  atmosphere,  that  in  which  the 
spiritual  heaven  is  founded,  it  was  necessary  for 
that  Sun  to  accommodate  and  instrument  itself 
about  with  a  certain  dense  envelope  or  body.  It  is 
this  accommodation  and  embodiment  of  the  Spirit- 
ual Sun  which  appears  in  the  natural  world  as  a  sun 
or  star.  For  the  spiritual  or  soul  is  always  first 
and  takes  to  itself  a  body,  that  it  may  do  uses.  The 
natural  sun  thus  lies  around  and  encloses  the  active 
spiritual  centre,  as  the  shell  of  a  nut  around  its 
living  kernel. 

But  the  greater  the  accommodation,  the  more 
narrowed  the  range  of  outgoing  action.  Hence  the 
Spiritual  Sun,  acting  into  and  from  a  sun  or  star, 
as  an  enveloping  body,  does  not  extend  its  influence 
far.  Hence  many  natural  suns  are  required  in  the 
universe  to  develop  volumes  of  second  aura.  There 
are  thus  as  many  volumes  of  second  atmospheres  or 
aura,  as  the  number  of  the  stars  in  the  sky ;  each 
volume  being  developed  about  its  parent  star,  and 
localized  about  it  for  its  very  maintenance ;  and  each 
volume  of  the  second  aura,  as  we  have  said,  is  the 
ground  and  habitat  of  one  society  of  the  spiritual 


41 


swedenborg's  cosmology. 


heaven,  that  is,  the  angels  of  the  spiritual  heaven 
dwell  interiorly  of  the  expanse  of  the  second  aura. 
For  "although  the  expanse  around  the  Sun  of  the 
angelic  heaven  is  not  an  extense,  still  it  is  in  the  ex- 
tense  of  the  natural  sun,  and  with  the  subjects  there 
according  to  their  form."103 

The  Volumes  of  the  Second  Aura.  It  is 
further  apparent,  that,  as  no  two  suns  are  pre- 
cisely alike,  as  star  differs  from  star  in  glory,  the 
volumes  of  second  aura  differ  likewise.  Great  vol- 
umes belong  to  great  stars,  small  volumes  to  small 
ones ;  and  modifications  as  to  form  extend  even  to 
the  bullae  thereof.  And  such  a  difference  is  the 
basis  of  a  special  individuation  of  genius  and  type 
in  the  society  of  the  heavens  founded  therein.  That 
no  two  worlds  or  systems  are  precisely  the  same,  as 
to  atmospheres,  earths,  or  forms  arising  out  of  them, 
sec  the  Divine  Love  and  Wisdom,  n.  318. 

Now  as  this  second  aura  differs  somewhat  in 
every  solar  system  of  the  created  universe ,  it  is  evi- 
dent that  the  correlated  plane  in  man,  the  intermedi- 
ate human,  the  rational,  is  framed  in  and  to  the 
second  aura  of  the  individual  solar  system,  upon 
one  of  whose  earths  he  is  brought  forth,  grows,  and 
is  educated ;  and  that  all  the  form  and  genius, — in- 

">»C.  L.  380. 


42 


FIRST  SUBSTANCE. 


dividual  and  social, — of  that  solar  system,  with  all 
its  peculiar  features,  will  be  stamped  upon  him.104 
The  result  would  be  so  markedly  different,  that  men 
of  two  solar  systems  could  scarcely  understand  each 
other.105  And  it  is  evident  that,  after  death,  a  man 
who  goes  only  to  the  spiritual  heaven,  which  is 
founded  in  this  second  aura,  will  remain  in  relation 
with  the  volume  of  the  second  aura  around  that 
particular  sun,  under  whose  rays  he  was  born.  For 
only  there  do  those  live  who  are  of  like  genius  with 
himself ;  and  only  in  the  range  and  sphere  of  that 
partcular  vortex  can  ha  abide,  and  be  free  and  at 
home. 

For  the  units  of  the  gray  or  cortical  glandular 
forms  of  the  human  organic  mind  are  built  to  the 
size  of  the  bulla?  of  the  second  aura,  and  natively 
expand  and  contract  in  sympathetic  rhythm  and 
consonance  therewith  ;  that  is.  they  expand  and  con- 
tract with  the  animatory  pulsation  of  the  natural  sun 
of  their  own  solar  system. 

Herein  follows  a  marvel !  Even  as  the  myriads 
of  cortical  glandules  in  the  microcosmic  man,  so  in 
die  Grand  Man  is  the  number,  the  order,  the  situa- 
tion, and  relation  of  the  societies  of  the  spiritual 

1<MPrincipia,  part  I.  Chap.  I.  12. 
108Principia,  part  III.  Chap.  II.  4. 


43 


swedenborg's  cosmology. 


heaven ;  and  the  same  is  the  number,  the  order,  the 
connection  of  the  starry  suns  of  creation,  and  their 
vortices  about  them.  Hence  the  order  and  situation 
of  the  suns  and  their  solar  systems  in  the  universe, 
are  as  the  order  and  situation  of  the  cortical  gland- 
ules which  form  in  their  complex  the  intermediate 
and  proper  faculty  of  man.109  Therefore  it  is  that 
the  Lord  from  creation,  foreseeing  the  number  of 
such  units  of  the  second  order  or  degree,  which 
would  be  necessary  to  fill  the  human  form  of  that 
degree,  provided  even  from  the  first  of  creation  for 
as  many  suns  or  stars.107 

These  innumerable  starry  suns  with  their  vor- 
tices are  linked  each  with  each  in  a  stupendous 
order  and  form,  connecting  throughout  the  universe. 
And  Swedenborg  says  that  no  change  can  happen 
in  one  which  is  not  perceived  in  all  the  others.101 
Nor  is  the  form  ever  full  and  closed.  Stars  as  yet 
latent  may  blaze  forth.  Ever  new  forms,  new  heav- 
ens and  new  earths,  may  arise  carrying  the  human 
creation  to  fuller  and  more  varied  perfection  with- 
out end. 

Discrete  Degrees.  The  history  of  the  formation 
of  the  volumes  of  second  aura  instructs  us  as  to  the 

106S.  D  270.   A.  C.  4039-4041-   D-  L-  W.  366. 
107T.  C.  R.  160. 

108Principia,  part  III.  Chap.  I.  9.  11. 


44 


FIRST  SUBSTANCE. 


formation  of  discrete  degrees.  Every  created  thing 
is  finite,  and  in  the  progress  of  creation  one  thing 
was  formed  from  another.  Thence  were  made  de- 
grees.109 

The  Economy  notes  that  an  understanding  of  de- 
grees is  basic  to  the  knowledge  and  recognition  of 
correspondence  ;110  and  we  learn  therefrom  how 
derivative  forms  are  concreted,  formed,  and  main- 
tained, from  the  substance  of  a  plane,  older,  finer, 
more  fluid,  and  more  active,  and  at  the  same  time 
more  universal,  more  all-embracing,  than  the  deriva- 
tive, posterior,  more  compounded,  and  more  ulti- 
mate degrees.111  Also  how  these  new  and  more 
finited  forms,  although  consubstantiate  with  the 
higher  and  prior  plane,  shall  be  in  quality  and  de- 
termination so  distinct  from  that  prior,  that  they 
deserve  to  receive  a  new  and  distinct  name,112  and 
become  a  substance  that  exists  as  it  were  by  itself. 
The  doctrine  of  degrees  then  exhibits  the  very  lad- 
der of  universal  creation  ;*13  and  the  understanding 
of  it  teaches  the  very  nature  of  order  in  the  actual 
successions  and  subordinations  of  creation. 

"»T.  C.  R.  33. 

110E.  A.  K.  part  II.  281. 

1J1E.  A.  K.,  part  I.  614-617. 

112E.  A.  K.,  part  I.  579;  part  II.  281. 

ll3E.  A.  K.,  part  II.  210. 


45 


swedenborg's  cosmology. 


"We  rarely  entertain  a  distinct  idea  of  degrees."114 

We  think  of  discrete  degrees  as  if  they  were 
something  that  existed  eternally.  But  according  to 
Swedenborg  degrees  are  finite  things,  and  have  come 
about  by  finiting  processes  and  definite  laws.  They 
were  made,  and  can  be  conceived  as  unmade.  In 
the  organic  world  discrete  degrees  are  actually  at 
every  instant  made  and  unmade,  compounded  and 
resolved.  At  every  round  of  the  transcendent  cir- 
culation of  the  three- fold  human  blood,  there  is  a 
perpetual  descent  and  ascent  according  to  degrees, 
an  1  this  most  distinctly  and  discretely.115 

Moreover,  the  history  of  the  rise,  succession,  and 
the  correspondential  relations  of  the  four  auras  or 
atmospheres  of  the  universe,  is  the  making  of  the 
great  elemental  series  of  four  degrees,  distinct,  dis- 
crete, extended  in  the  universe  as  the  tabernacle  of 
the  heavens  with  its  four  distinct  apartments. 

Now  when  a  posterior  or  more  finited  degree  is 
to  he  brought  into  existence,  the  substance  of  the 
prior  degree,  by  means  of  flowing  currents  in  its 
volume,  outlines  and  delineates  the  form,  or  faculty, 
about  to  be  created.  This  representation  of  the  yet 
unborn  posterior  in  the  prior,  extends,  Swedenborg 

114E.  A.  K.,  part  II.  205. 

11BA.  K.  260.  s.;  E.  A.  K.,  part  I.  148-154.  161.  199.  602; 
part  II.  222. 


46 


FIRST  SUBSTANCE. 


says,  as  a  cause  to  all  causates,  both  in  the  king- 
dom of  the  auras,  and  in  the  animal  body.11'  And 
after  the  posterior  is  constructed  as  an  individual 
form  or  plane,  the  flowing  currents  of  the  prior, 
which  delineated  the  posterior  or  secondary  form, 
still  hold  the  second  form  together,  and  maintain  it 
perpetually. 

The  lines  of  the  pattern,  thus  primarily  repre- 
sented in  the  prior  substance,  are  afterwards  as  it 
were  infilled  with  entia,  bullae,  particles,  or  finitcs, 
proper  to  the  degree  of  the  plane  to  be  produced, 
having  been  first  formed  from  the  prior  degree  by 
composition  and  compression.  These  myriads  of 
infilling  particles  are  then  held  together  in  the  flow- 
ing matrix  of  the  superior  plane  which  surrounds 
and  encompasses  them. 

Whatever  be  the  potency  of  the  units  or  sub- 
stantiates in  themselves,  so  soon  as  they  enter  with 
others  into  the  construction  of  a  more  finited  and 
concrete  form,  their  active  potency  is  finited  to  the 
general  choral  march  or  gyre  of  the  form  of  which 
they  are  now  part  and  parcel.  There  remains  in  the 
substance  but  the  effort  and  the  intuitive  instinct  to 
endeavor  back  again,  to  ascend  again  to  the  source 
from  which  it  set  forth  ;  and  thus  operate  an  inner  en- 

116E.  A.  K,  part  II.  276. 


47 


swedenborg's  cos m ology. 


deavor  to  resolve  the  form  of  which  it  is  part,  and 

ascend  even  by  the  death  of  that  form  to  its  own 
purer  and  higher  degrees ;  especially  if  the  ultimate 
form  becomes  non-correspondent  to  the  ends  of 
creation,  to  the  reception  of  the  Divine,  and  co- 
operation in  the  service  of  its  uses.  It  seems  to 
have  been  from  this  action  of  the  Divine  endeavor 
in  ultimates,  that  the  antediluvian  race  was  cor- 
poreally destroyed  at  the  time  of  the  flood.117 

It  is,  indeed,  a  common  law  of  spiritual  compound 
form,  that  whatever  may  be  the  power  of  action  of 
the  primal  units  or  substantiate  in  themselves,  in 
their  own  prior  plane,  whenever  they  unite  together 
to  frame  compound  forms  of  a  lower  character  and 
degree,  their  action  is  then  limited  and  defined  to 
the  form  and  plane  of  which  they  now  make  a  part ; 
there  remaining  only  a  conatus  to  resolve  and  as- 
cend to  the  higher  degree. 

A  celestial  man  loses  his  wisdom  when  he  de- 
scends to  a  lower  plane ;  and  the  human  spirituous 
fluid, — in  which  resides  per  se  a  range  of  knowl- 
edge and  of  action  commensurate  witli  creation,— 
when  its  substance  is  mated  with  etherial  and  aerial 
salts  and  compounded  into  the  red  blood,  lives  but 

*"Ath.  Cr-  P-  lS> 


48 


FIRST  SUBSTANCE. 


a  common  and  obscure  life.118  In  it,  during  the 
stage  of  its  composition  as  red  blood,  there  remains 
only  the  endeavor  towards  resolution  through  the 
walls  of  the  capillaries. — the  endeavor  towards  the 
death  of  its  composite  form,  by  the  laying  down  of 
the  inert  copulating  salts,  and  thereby  its  own  free- 
ing, separation,  resolution,  ascent  and  return  to  its 
pristine  activity  and  life. 

Indeed,  the  death  of  the  outer  body  as  a  whole, 
and  at  the  same  time  the  resurrection  to  higher 
planes  of  knowledge  and  life,  is  but  a  laying  down  at 
once  en  masse,  of  all  the  salts  and  inert  particles  in 
the  blood,  and  from  the  blood  in  the  tissues.  By 
that  death  the  human  spirituous  fluid  ascends  and 
returns  to  its  own  full  human  life  together  with  the 
simplest  fibre  which  is  released  with  it,  in  all  its 
complex  of  organism, — the  latter  being  conditioned 
according  to  the  modification  of  its  form,  stamped 
by  the  habit  of  individual  mental  life, — and  carry- 
ing with  it  such  and  so  much  of  the  subtle  spheres, 
given  off  by  lower  organic  planes  of  the  mind  and 
their  activities,  as  have  contributed  to  its  own  open- 
ing and  infilling. 

The  story  of  the  formation,  then,  of  a  human  or- 
ganism at  birth,  by  successive  compositions  of  the 

"Tost.  Tracts,  The  Red  Blood,  Chap.  XIV. 


40 


swedenborg's  cosmology. 


spirituous  fluid  or  human  internal,  and  the  re-ascent 
at  death,  is  exactly  the  story  of  the  circle  of  descent 
by  discrete  degrees  of  compounding,  and  ascent  by 
uegrees  of  death  or  lying  down  or  resolution,  which 
is  repeated  momentarily  in  the  course  of  the  trans- 
cendent circulation  of  human  internal  to  ultimate 
effect,  form,  and  use,  and  back  again  to  its  origin 
and  source.119 

The  Principia  instructs  us  therefore  as  to  the  tru: 
mode  and  manner  of  the  formation  of  discrete  de- 
grees, in  the  story  of  the  successive  formation  of 
finites  from  their  first  origin  in  the  Spiritual  Sun, 
by  successive  stages  of  composition  even  to  the  ulti- 
mates  of  nature.  The  Writings  repeat  the  same 
story  in  general,  summing  together  the  details  that 
are  given  in  the  Principia.120 

119E.  A.  K.,  part  I.  158.  161.  199;  A.  K.  407.  note  s. 
i=»Sec  T.  C.  R.  33.  "6;  D.  L.  W.  94.  302-305.  310. 


SO 


CHAPTER  III. 


NATURAL  SUNS  AND  PLANETS. 

Natural  Suns  have  an  internal,  or  soul,  and  a 
natural  envelope  or  body ;  and  their  internal  is  the 
beginning,  their  bodies  being  an  accretion  a  ided 
later.  After  they  have  been  brought  into  their  full 
and  ultimate  form,  the  two  act  as  one  cause  on  the 
plane  of  effects,  as  the  soul  and  body  of  man. 

The  internal  of  natural  suns  is  a  pure  active  space 
of  the  Spiritual  Sun,  together  with  the  first  active 
proceedings  or  radiant  belts  from  it.  This  internal 
exists  primitively  as  a  vast  and  apparently  vacuous 
abyss,  but  a  spherical  abyss  of  living  force,  sur- 
rounded by  the  foam  structure  of  the  universal  aura. 

This  vast  sun-internal  or  star  soul  is  in  a  per- 
petual animatory  motion,121  a  most  eminent  cardiac 
and  pulmonic  motion  which  God  Man  acts  from 
Himself  into  the  forms  of  universal  creation.122 
Therefore,  the  origin  of  this  motion  is  living,  su- 

121E.  A.  K.,  part  I.  170.  300;  II.  312. 
12=D.  L.  W.  392:  E.  A.  K..  part  I.  169.  170.  300.  302. 
314;  D.  Wis.  XII,  3,  5. 


51 


swedenborg's  cosmology. 


premely  living,  since  it  is  from  the  life  and  action 
immediately  from  God  Man  Himself.128 

In  this  internal  are  the  seeds  of  suns  and  solar 
systems,  and  the  volume  of  the  universal  aura  is  as 
the  common  mother  by  which  all  suns  and  worlds 
arc  produced.  Thus  the  enveloping  body  of  suns  is 
taken  from  the  matrix  or  mother.124.  This  body 
presents  itself  in  the  shape  of  a  sort  of  double  radi- 
ant envelope,  composed  of  volumes  of  third  and 
fourth  finitcs.125  These  latter  are  the  primitives  of 
the  finer  and  grosser  members  of  the  metallic  family 
in  nature.126 

When  the  internal  or  Spiritual  Sun  has  at  length 
formed  such  a  body  about  itself,  it  thereafter  acts 
its  animatory  motion  into  its  own  enveloping  body ; 
and  that  envelope,  receiving  this  animatory  motion, 
in  turn  acts  from  itself  a  derivative  animatory  mo- 
tion ;127  even  as  we  are  taught  that  an  internal  or 
soul  always  acts  into  and  upon  its  body,  and  the 
body  then  acts  from  itself.128  This  derivative  ani- 
matory motion  is  of  a  slower  rhythm,  more  bounded 

L.  W.  157-  392.    T.  C.  R.  472. 
t**D.  Wis.  III.  2;  T.  C.  R.  92. 

125Principia,  part  I.  Chap.  VIII;  part  III.  Chap.  III. 
12CCorpuscular  Philosophy. 
127E.  A.  K.  part  I.  170;  D.  L.  W.  T57.  392. 
"*T.  C.  R.  154. 


52 


SUNS  AND  PLANETS. 

I 

and  finited,  and  of  far  greater  breadth  of  difference 
between  expansion  and  constriction.  Thus  it  is  able 
to  act  upon  and  affect  large,  gross,  less  elastic 
bullae,  and  to  reduce  the  more  non-living  forms  into 
sympathetic  reciprocations  and  expansions,  such  as 
the  fine  animations  of  the  pure  spiritual  centre  or 
Spiritual  Sun  itself  cannot  do  ;129  even  as  a  nerve 
cannot  act  upon  a  stone  immediately,  but  only  by 
means  of  its  grosser  body  or  instrument,  a  muscle. 

Suns  are  thus  bodied  about  with  an  envelope  of 
something  like  a  flamy  metallic  vapor,  the  splendor 
of  which  we  see  as  fire.  This  flamy  fire  in  its  sub- 
stantiates is  the  very  beginning  of  what  we  may  cad 
the  natural.  The  third  and  fourth  finites  which  con- 
stitute it  are  in  a  primal  freedom  of  activity  beyond 
earthly  comparison.  But  as  a  whole  this  envelope  is 
under  an  equilibrium  of  pressure  from  the  activity 
of  the  Spiritual  Sun  within  and  the  reacting  aura 
without  which  condenses,  presses,  and  steadies  it, 
almost  into  a  viscous  mass.  This  is  where  metallic 
primitives  have  their  rise  and  origin,  and  what  Swe- 
denborg  teaches  of  the  primitive  metallic  nature  of 
the  fiery  envelope  of  the  sun  has  been  observed  by 
the  spectrum. 

First  and  second  substantials,  the  finites  which 

129T.  C.  R.  308;  D.  Wis.  XII.  2.  3.  5. 


53 


swedenborg's  cosmology. 

constitute  the  two  radiant  belts  below  the  Spiritual 
Sun,  are  framed  immediately  from  the  primitives  of 
that  Sun,  by  means  of  their  own  conflowing  and 
conglobation.  They  arise  directly  from  the  Spiritual 
Sun,  belong  to  the  whole  universe,  and  are  framed 
into  the  bullular  structure  of  the  universal  aura. 
The  latter  is  thus  of  the  very  essence  of  the  Spiritual 
Sun.130 

Third  and  Fourth  Substantial^  or  Finites 
are  formed  in  the  immediate  vicinage  of  suns,  just 
on  the  border  between  their  active  souls  or  centers 
and  the  surrounding  volumes  of  first  and  second 
auras;  and  they  are  formed  by  condensations  and' 
compressions  of  the  foam-texture  of  these  auras. 
The  volume  of  third  and  fourth  finites,  thus  formed 
about  a  given  sun,  belongs  not  to  the  universe,  but 
to  one  particular  solar  system,  and  serves  for  its 
individual  uses  and  materia.  Fifth  finites,  however, 
come  into  existence  only  around  the  individual 
planetary  masses.131  Each  local  volume  of  fifth 
finites,  therefore,  is  confined  near  the  surface  of  its 
own  parent  planet,  and  is  appropriate  to  the  uses 
and  grosser  materia  of  that  particular  planet. 

Fifth  Finites  are  the  active  primitives  or  pro- 

130D.  L.  W.  300. 

13^Principia,  part  III   Chap.  VI. 


54 


SUNS  AND  PLANETS. 


genitors  of  the  sixth  and  seventh  families  of  the 
periodic  system  of  chemical  elements,  that  is,  the 
Oxygen-sulphur  and  halogen  families  ;  for  Sweden- 
borg  says  that  the  fifth  finites  are  the  elementary 
primitives  of  our  earthly  or  culinary  fire,132  and  that 
they  enter  chiefly  into  those  angular  acid  salts,  de- 
rived by  the  functional  activity  of  the  vegetable  king- 
dom into  the  interstices  of  the  bullae  of  the  fourth 
elementaries  ;133  and  by  which  the  venous  blood  is 
changed  into  arterial  in  the  lungs.134  This  volatile 
aerial  salt,  floating  in  the  bullular  interstices  of  the 
aerial  elementary,  is  derived  from  the  soil  into  the 
interstices  of  the  aerial  elementary,  through  free 
vegetative  activity  by  means  of  the  current  of 
vaporous  exhalation  from  the  leaves.135  These 
finites  arc  also  the  primitives  composing  one  of  the 
two  substances  entering  into  the  structure  of  the 
water  unit,130  and  are  also  the  primitives  which 
enter  into  one  of  the  two  constituents  of  the  sea  or 
halogen  salts.137 

Since  the  fifth  finites  originated  strictly  at  the  sur- 

"sPrincipia,  part  III.  Chap.  VIII. 
133T.  C.  R.  470;  Corp.  Phil;  De  Fibra,  273. 
134 A.  K.  406,  407,  485,  488.    E.  A.  K.,  part  I.  50. 
135D.  L.  W.  310.  420;  Doc.  302.  On  Odours;  Principia, 
part  III.  Chap.  IX.  4. 

l3BPrincipia,  part  III.  Chap.  IX.  1;  Chap.  III.  I. 
137Principles  of  Chemistry,  Chap.  I.  and  X. 


55 


SWEDEN  BORG's  COSMOLOGY. 


face  of  the  planets,  and  began  to  be  formed  there 
only  when  the  planets  were  at  a  great  distance  from 
the  sun,  none  of  the  derivatives  of  the  fifth  finites 
can  be  formed  in  the  enveloping  body  of  the  sun. 
This  fact,  viz.,  that  the  primitives  of  the  sixth  and 
seventh  periodic  families  of  chemistry  exist  in  the 
vicinage  of  the  planets,  and  not  in  the  envelope  of 
the  sun,  has  been  independently  discovered  within 
the  last  generation  by  the  aid  of  the  spectroscope. 
The  reason  why  the  sun  is  without  these  elements  so 
common  upon  the  earth,  on  any  supposition  that  the 
earth  mass  was  itself  part  of  the  common  belt  of  the 
sun,  is  one  of  the  puzzles  of  modern  research.  Swe- 
denborg  gives  the  clue  to  its  cause,  in  his  teaching 
as  to  the  origin  of  the  primitives  of  the  metallic 
families  immediately  about  the  solar  center,  and  the 
origin  of  the  larger,  grosser  primitive  substanti- 
ates, as  those  of  the  oxygen-sulphur  and  halogen 
families,  about  the  planets. 

Origin  of  the  Third  Finites.  The  third  finites, 
which  form  the  envelopes  of  the  bullae  of  the  second 
aura,  are  prepared  by  compression  from  the  primal 
aura.  The  compression  of  the  bullae  of  the  first 
aura  is  effected  at  the  expense  of  their  active 
centers.  The  first  finites,  active  in  these  nuclear  cen- 
ters, escape,  leaving  the  empty  envelopes  of  second 
finites,  which  by  compression  then  form  the  third 


56 


SUNS  AND  PLANETS. 


finites,  ready  to  be  used  to  form  the  crust  or  en- 
velope of  the  particle  of  the  second  aura. 

The  first  substantial s  or  finites,  which  form  the 
active  center  of  the  primal  aura  particle,  and  which 
escape  on  the  compression  of  this  particle,  are  for 
the  most  part  eventually  compounded  or  brought  to- 
gether to  form  second  substantiate  active,  and  very 
many  of  them  enter  the  internal  active  space  of  a 
sun.1"  For  second  and  first  substantiate  can  move 
without  mutual  interference  in  the  same  field,  if  the 
space  is  not  confined.133 

The  third  grade  of  finifes  or  substantiate  thus 
come  into  existence  by  compression  of  the  foam 
substance  of  the  primal  aura.  They  are  the  first  of 
the  finites  to  be  formed  by  the  instrumentality  of 
compression.  They  possess  the  same  vortex  ring 
figure  as  the  first  and  second.  They  have  the  like 
vortico-spiral  internal  circulation,  and  the  like 
conatus  and  potency  of  spontaneous  activity  and 
orbital  motion ;  but  of  a  lessened  velocity  and  a 
wider  orbit.  Their  interior  texture  is  relatively 
coarse  and  comparatively  open.140 

These  third  finites  are  produced  in  innumerable 
volumes  about  the  primitive  internal  of  a  solar  cen- 

138Principia,  part  I.  Chap.VI.  8. 
139Principia.  Part  I.  Chap.  VII.  8.  9. 
ll0Principia,  part  I.  Chap.  VII.  7. 


57 


swedenborg's  cosmology. 


ter.  Of  them  is  formed  the  enveloping  body  of  a 
sun.  They  always  remain  in  the  envelope  as  a 
part  of  it.  They  never  enter  the  internal  space  of 
higher  power.  Their  entrance  is  guarded  against  by 
the  very  coarseness  of  their  texture.  Thev  are  a 
discrete  degree  below,  and,  as  we  have  seen,  Nature 
properly  begins  with  them. 

The  Bullae  of  the  Second  Aura.  And  now 
new  bullae  are  formed  with  active  centers  similar  to 
the  active  center  of  the  sun  itself,  and  with  a  similar 
circumference  or  envelope, — first  and  second  ffnitcs 
active  forming  the  active  center  or  soul  of  these 
bullae,  while  third  finites  passive  form  their  bound- 
ing envelopes.  These  are  the  bullae  of  the  second 
aura.  Their  very  endeavor  and  motion  is  vortical; 
they  are  carried  out  from  the  sun  along  the  stream- 
ing vortex  gyre  of  the  primal  aura ;  and  they  are 
produced  in  such  abundance  that  they  at  length 
form  a  volume  of  as  great  breadth  as  the  breadth 
of  the  solar  system  which  is  then  to  he.  This  vol- 
ume of  the  second  or  magnetic  aura  is  itself  in  the 
shape  of  a  vast  vortex  ring,  lying  all  about  the 
sun,  and  of  which  that  sun  is  the  center,  a  vol- 
ume revolving  in  rotary  wheel  and  gyre  forever.141 
This  is  the  great  circumambient  atmosphere  of  the 

141Principia,  part  III.  Chap.  I.  part  I.  Chap.  X.  5.  6.  7. 


58 


SUNS  AND  PLANETS. 


sun,  constituting  its  own  aura  and  vortex,  the 
second  aura,  the  first  of  the  natural. 

Fourth  Finites.  From  the  bullae  of  this  grosser 
aura,  the  second,  in  turn  and  after  a  like  fashion, 
condensations  are  formed  in  the  immediate  vicinage 
of  the  sun ;  for  the  law  by  which  creation  descends 
by  successive  degrees  of  compression  and  composi- 
tion, continues  its  operation.  The  result  is  finites  of 
the  next  degree,  or  fourth  finites.14-  Of  these  finites 
an  enormous  passive  volume  was  formed  about  the 
sun  in  the  epoch  of  the  primal  birth  of  the  system. 
This  chaotic  volume  of  fourth  finites  at  that  period 
was  increased  and  concreted  until  it  formed  a  dense 
darkening  crust  around  the  sun,  of  incredible  thick- 
ness and  resistance.143  Still  it  was  whirled  and  ro- 
tated about  the  sun,  by  the  general  wheeling  motion 
of  the  vortex  of  the  second  aura  of  which  it  is 
practically  a  part.144  And  this  perpetual  rotating 
motion  continued,  until  the  centrifugal  whirl  of  the 
vast  stiffening  shell  resulted  in  its  disruption.  Then 
were  formed  three  kinds  of  astronomical  bedies.1" 

"zPrincipia,  part  I.  Chap.  IX.  10;  Part  III.  Chap.  IV 
I.  3. 

143Principia,  Part  III.  Chap.  IV.  2.  3.  4. 
144Principia,  part  III.  Chap.  IV.  5.  6.  7. 
145Principia,  ibid  7,  et  seq.  (fig.  103.) 


59 


swedenborg's  cosmology. 


t.  Where  masses  of  the  envelope  were  rounded 
into  simple  balls,  the  solid  planets  were  formed. 

2.  Where  the  outer  side  of  the  envelope  curled 
over  outwards,  and  conglobated  like  a  thick  en- 
velope round  a  sort  of  nucleus  of  the  aura  of  the 
vortex,  the  non-solid  fluctuant  satellites  came  into 
existence. 

3.  Where  the  inner  passive  dense  crust  was 
driven  outward  by  the  expansive  force  of  the  active 
center,  the  edges  of  its  broken  fragments  curled  over 
and  globed  about  masses  of  the  inner  solar  space, 
forming  great  expansile  bulla?  like  pseudo  suns. 
These  are  the  vast  solar  bubbles  or  sun  spots,  sure 
to  burst  as  soon  as  the  outside  pressure  lessens. 

Sufficiently  immense  for  this  threefold  use  was 
the  primal  mass  of  the  first  bodiment  of  the  sun.  In 
the  epoch  after  the  formation  and  breaking  up  of  the 
first  dense  envelope,  the  body  of  the  sun  was  formed 
again  for  its  age-long  uses.  And  again  the  epochal 
story  of  the  period  of  compression  and  disruption  is 
rhythmically  told  in  tensions  and  releases  of  twelve 
year  periods.  But  never  again  does  the  solar  en- 
velope grow  so  thick  amd  stiff  that  it  ceases  to  vibrate, 
and  darkens  the  sun ;  nor  ever  again  does  it  attain  to 
anything  like  the  thickness  adequate  to  the  mak- 
ing of  planetary  masses.  Only  at  periods  is  the  sur- 
face tossed ;  magnetic  storms  of  irregular  current 


60 


SUNS  AND  PLANETS. 


stream  in  the  vortex;  and  the  new  sun-spots,  tak- 
ing birth  and  origin  on  the  inner  side  of  the  en- 
velope, make  their  way  through,  until,  as  they  touch 
a  less  dense  region,  they  break,  like  the  vast  bub- 
bles they  are;  and  toss  their  films  of  metallic  fire 
into  the  plane  of  the  vortex  volume  about  the  sun's 
equator,  there  to  add  their  quota  to  the  meteoric 
dust,  shining  in  that  far  region  like  moths  in  a  sun- 
beam;  and  in  the  long  ages  giving  rise  to  the  lens- 
shaped  ray  of  that  serene  fairy  illumination  we  call 
the  zodiacal  light. 

The  Planetary  Masses.  First  in  importance 
are  the  planetary  masses  or  primitive  earths.  These 
are  spherical  masses  of  the  materia  of  the  solar 
crust,  the  fourth  substantials,  and  can  be  formed  only 
where  the  ring  of  that  materia  is  thickest.  They  are 
homogeneous  all  through.  They  have  no  rarefied 
elastic  central  space,  but  are  as  solid  as  anything  can 
be,  and,  if  anything,  are  more  compressed  at  their 
core  than  at  their  surface.140 

These  resistant  solid  globes,  though  spherical,  are 
yet  flattened  at  their  poles,  the  reasons  for  which  we 
may  here  briefly  consider. 

Since  primitive  earths  are  made  of  substantials  or 
finites ;  since  finites  of  every  grade  have  a  vortex- 

'"Principia,  part  TTT.  Chap.  Ill,  7  ct  scq. 


6l 


swedenborg's  cosmology. 


ring  configuration,  and  a  conatus  to  circulo-spiral 
motion ;  since  finites  of  such  figure  can  be  more 
closely  packed  wl  en  they  are  set  in  orderly  arrange- 
ment, flattened  pole  to  flattened  pole  ;  since  this  is 
the  arrangement  into  which  they  bring  themselves 
when  greatly  crowded  and  in  sufficient  volume ;  since 
around  the  starry  suns  the  vast  masses  of  fourth 
finites  find  themselves  under  the  required  conditions 
of  mutual  pressure ;  and  since  the  finites  composing 
these  immense  globular  masses  will  arrange  them- 
selves in  such  foulcaux,  pole  to  pole ;  therefore,  the 
result  will  be  a  vast  ball  emulating  the  flattened  dis- 
coid shape  of  the  constituent  finites.  The  primitive 
earth  mass  thus  became  as  it  were  a  huge  image  of 
the  finites  entering  into  its  composition.147  And  it  is 
worthy  to  be  noted  as  remarkable,  that  the  close  set 
rouleaux  of  finites,  though  compacted  into  such  a 
mass,  yet  carry  on  a  slow  oppressed  circulation,  from 
an  inherent  conatus  to  it  which  is  retained  even  in 
the  dark  moveless  condensation  of  its  core.  By 
virtue  of  this  fact,  the  great  g'obes  as  a  whole  have 
in  them  a  striving  to  an  orbital  motion  of  their  own, 
emulous  of  the  circulo-spiral  orbit  in  which  the 
finites  themselves  run. 

The  single  finites  possess  native  orbits  of  small 

i«Principia,  part  III.  Chap.  XI.  2.  3. 


62 


SUNS  AND  PLANETS. 


diameters,  inconceivably  small.  But  the  earth  mass 
images  of  finites  have  native  orbits  of  millions  of 
miles ;  the  orbit  being  proportioned  to  the  size  of  the 
body.  Therefore,  the  great  earth  masses,  solid,  re- 
sistant all  through,  are  yet  emulous  finites  or  sub- 
stantiate, and  have  in  themselves  the  conatus  and 
power  of  running  forever  in  an  orbital  circulo- 
spiral  path. 

If  such  bodies  pass  from  the  vicinage  of  the  sun, 
outwards  along  the  lines  of  its  revolving  vortex,  to 
a  situation  where  the  pressures  of  the  surrounding 
ether-foam  are  less,  to  a  situation  where  the  aura 
around  them  is  more  rarefied  than  near  the  sun,  no 
abrupt  or  disastrous  consequences  can  befall  them. 
For  instance,  they  cannot  explode,  since  this  does 
not  happen  to  solid  bodies.  The  only  thing  that 
can  happen  to  them,  on  coming  to  a  region  of  less 
density,  is  that  the  layers  of  finites  on  their  imme- 
diate surface  will  tend  to  free  themselves,  and,  in 
clouds  like  vapor  from  the  water,  will  rise,  circle, 
and  curl  about  the  solid  surface  of  the  planets. 

The  part  which  these  freed  streams  of  fourth 
finites  play  will  be  taken  up  in  the  later  study  of  the 
formation  about  each  planet  of  two  terrestrial  at- 
mospheres, the  third  and  fourth  discrete  degrees  in 
the  atmospheric  series,  or  the  third  and  fourth  auras, 
which  are  the  ether  and  the  aerial  elementary. 


63 


swedenborg's  cosmology. 


The  Satellites.  Second  in  importance,  in  the 
breaking  up  of  the  primal  solar  crust,  are  the  satel- 
lites; and,  third,  the  sun  spots.  These,  unlike  the 
planetary  masses,  or  earths,  are  not  solid  bodies. 
They  are  hollow  ;  they  are  like  bubbles  or  immense 
bullular  forms,  denser  on  the  outsi  le  than  they  are 
w  ithin.  They  are  bodies,  therefore,  whose  internal 
structure  predicts  possible  abrupt  and  grave  changes, 
so  soon  as  they  shall  be  carried  beyond  the  dense 
environment,  the  strong  outside  pressures,  of  the 
locality  where  they  are  brought  forth,  to  a  more 
rarefied  region  of  the  solar  vortex.14S 

The  primitive  earth  masses,  as  we  have  said,  were 
formed  in  the  midst  of  the  thickest  portions  of  the 
ring  or  belt  around  the  sun,  when  its  substance  fell 
in  together  upon  itself.  But  on  the  outer  side  of 
that  belt,  away  from  the  solar  center,  facing  towards 
the  outer  space,  another  type  of  body,  the  satellite, 
is  formed.  When  the  great  encrusting  belt  is 
broken,  the  vortex  pressing  inward  tends  to  catch 
great  sheets  of  the  viscous  metallic  matter,  and  bend 
them  inward,  so  that  they  belly  in  toward  the  sun 
like  great  sails.  These  great  be'lving  sheets,  by 
virtue  of  their  viscous  state,  and  the  proneness  of 
all  their  constituent  finities  to  press  towards  circling 

14sPrinoip:n,  part  III.  Chap.  111.  7. 


64 


SUNS  AND  PLANETS. 


orbits  of  motion,  will  tend  to  drop  their  edges  to- 
gether, to  meet,  to  close  about  the  volume  of  the 
vortex  aura  caught  within  it.  The  result  will  be 
the  formation  of  a  vast  hollow  cosmic  bal'.  consist- 
ing of  a  more  or  less  thick  crust  or  enve'ope  of 
fourth  finites  which  enclose  a  great  volume  of  the 
second  aura.  Nor  will  these  new  bodies  have  a 
polar  flattening  as  the  planets  have,  but  will  be  per- 
fectly round  by  reason  of  the  equal  pressure  extended 
in  every  direction  by  the  enclosed  elastic  bu'lae. 
Such  are  the  satellites,  according  to  Swedenborg. 

The  Sun  Spots.  And  now  as  to  the  sun  spots, — 
their  point  of  origin  is  on  the  inner  side  of  the  great 
encrusting  girdle  of  the  sun,  when  this  gird  :  breaks 
up;  that  is,  on  the  concave  side,  facing  the  active 
star  center.  Here  the  force  of  the  central  space  acts 
immediately  upon  it.  Therefore,  when  it  gives  way, 
great  sheets  of  the  crust  on  the  inner  side  will  be 
bellied  and  driven  out.  and  the  viscous  metallic 
matter  curling  back  over  its  edges  dropping  to- 
gether and  meeting,  will  close  in  about  the  volume 
of  fiery  second  finites  driven  against  them. 

Thus  arise  great  cosmic  bodies,  hollow,  with  en- 
veloping crusts  of  metallic  primitives,  surrounding 
fiery  active  high-pressure  centers  of  second  sub- 
stantiate. They  are  thus  vast  cosmic  bubbles  aris- 
ing at  the  junction  of  the  star  center  with  its  envelop- 


65 


swedenborg's  cosmology. 


ing  crust  or  girdle ;  and  their  state  is  necessarily  that 
of  bombs  highly  charged.  And  so  soon  as  the 
wheeling  vortex  carries  them  out  of  the  region  of 
condensation  pressure,  they  have  in  their  constitu- 
tion the  inevitable  conditions  of  instant  expansion 
and  explosion.  Such  are  the  bodies  to  which  the 
phenomena  of  sun  spots  are  due.  according  to  Swe- 
denborg.149 

Further  Development  of  Planets  and  Satel- 
lites. All  the  types  of  bodies,  formed  from  the 
viscous  metallic  crust  of  the  sun,  planets,  satel'ites, 
and  sun  bubbles  or  sun  spots,  continue  to  rotate 
about  the  sun,  even  as  the  substance  from  which 
they  were  formed  rotated  about  the  sun  before  they 
were  shaped. 

Gathered  up  by  the  aura-flow,  they  swing  at  first 
round  and  round  the  sun  in  the  plane  in  which  they 
were  formed  ;  but  little  by  little,  at  every  circling 
round,  their  wheeling  motion  enlarges  its  diameter; 
and  they  arc  imperceptibly  carried  awav  from  the 
region  where  they  were  formed,  where  the  outside 
pressures  are  great,  to  regions  where  the  aura  about 
them  is  less  compressed,  less  dense,  more  and  more 
rarefied. 

During  this  progress  from  the  center  of  the  vor- 
UBPrincipia,  part  TIT.  Chap.  TIT.  7  el  scq. 


66 


SUNS  AND  PLANETS. 


tex.  not  much  can  happen  to  the  genuine  planets,  the 
resistent  solid  masses  of  the  primitive  earths.  They 
will  grow  smaller  as  they  go.  in  proportion  as  the 
outer  layers  of  their  materia  are  lifted  and  wound 
off,  in  the  weaving  of  their  enveloping  garments  of 
third  and  fourth  ether.  This  we  have  already  in- 
dicated, and  shall  return  to  it  in  detail. 

With  the  satellites  a  different  possibility  comes 
into  play.  Satellite  forms,  as  we  have  seen,  are 
shell-like  crusts  of  viscous  metallic  primitives  en- 
closed around  a  volume  of  the  vortex-ether,  the 
second  or  magnetic  aura  which  makes  the  vortex 
of  each  sun,  or  solar  system. 

Now  when  forms  of  such  constitution  are  borne 
outward  to  regions  where  the  surrounding  volume 
of  second  aura  is  under  less  pressure  and  more  rare- 
fied, then,  in  proportion  as  the  volume  of  second  aura 
outside  the  shell  of  the  satellite  is  lessened,  the  vol- 
ume of  second  aura  inside  the  satellite  will  expand, 
or  strive  to  do  so.  until  it  is  in  the  same  state  of  den- 
sity as  the  aura  outside.  So  long  as  the  crusting 
substance  is  viscous,  this  will  lead  onlv  to  a  gradual 
enlargement  of  the  satellite,  as  it  travels  away  from 
the  vicinage  of  the  sun.  And  if  the  crust  is  thick 
enough  and  yielding  enough,  to  accommodate  itself 
to  the  strain  without  breaking,  nothing  further  will 
happen.    But  if  the  outer  crust  grows  too  thin  in 


67 


SWEDEN BORG's  COSMOLOGY. 

places,  or  too  stiff  to  yield,  vents  will  be  opened  in 
the  crust  like  safety  valves,  permitting  sufficient  of 
the  inner  volume  of  aura  to  escape,  in  order  to 
equalize  the  pressure  of  the  aura  without  and  the 
aura  within.  In  that  case,  the  crust  of  the  satellite 
will  probably  wrinkle  back,  puckered  and  folded, 
like  an  apple  when  half  its  juice  has  evaporated  from 
it.  This  seems  to  be  what  has  happened  to  our 
moon,  judging  by  its  appearance. 

There  is,  too,  always  a  possibility  that  these  open- 
ing vents  and  cracks  may  be  so  large,  and  so  abrupt- 
ly made,  that  the  whole  crust  of  the  satellite  will 
break  up  into  a  dozen  pieces  ;  in  which  case  there 
would  no  longer  be  any  satellite,  but  there  would  be 
a  dozen  little  asteroids  or  meteors,  swarming  and 
swimming  around  on  the  tide  of  the  vortex. 

The  opening  of  vents  in  the  crust  of  a  satel'ite 
would  not  militate  against  the  existence  of  human 
beings  upon  it.  The  satellites  are  embosomed  in  the 
auras,  which  bathe  them  about  and  touch  them  on 
every  side;  and  wherever  the  auras  are,  there  is 
life,  and  formative  life.150 

The  substance  of  the  satellite  crust  is  of  the  min- 
eral kingdom,  and  sends  out  continual  radio-emana- 
tions  in  impalpable  clouds.    Wherever  these  are, 

isoAth.  Cr.  p.  8  39;  Corp.  Phil. 


68 


SUNS  AND  PLANETS. 


there  exist  the  substances  out  of  which  the  life- 
formative  fashions  to  itself  bodies  of  use.  Given, 
therefore,  the  life-formative  of  the  foam  auras,  and 
the  radio-emanent  spheres  of  the  mineral  kingdom, 
vegetation  can  begin.  And  when  vegetation  once 
begins,  new  radio-cmanent  spheres  or  clouds  of 
effluvia  are  sent  forth  from  this  new  kingdom,  pro- 
viding thereby  for  the  next  grand  stage,  the  creation 
of  the  animal  kingdom.  Tt  is  literally  thus  that  crea- 
tion does  begin  on  any  planet,  airl  so  does  it  climb 
from  clod  to  plant,  from  plant  to  beast  and  nan. 
There  needs  to  be  first  but  the  life-formative,  the 
living  auras,  as  the  active:  and  for  its  passive  the 
stuff  and  substance  of  the  sateHites  and  planets,  with 
their  radio-emanent  spheres  of  particles,  indefinitely 
ponderable,  but  capable  of  being  organized  into  forms 
of  use  by  the  inflowing  and  encompassing  auras. 
And  we  would  note  in  addition  a  remarkable  fact, 
that  when  such  a  sphere  has  been  given  forth  from 
an  organic  form,  the  sphere  remains  even  though 
the  parent  form  itself  dies.  The  oxygen  salt,  vola- 
tile, aerial,  which  the  plant  gave  off  last  year,  the 
animals  breathes  to-day.  Thus  do  the  living  auras, 
framing  vegetative  bodies  from  the  radio-emana- 
tions of  the  mineral  kingdom,  prepare  for  animal 
and  human  life  upon  the  earth ;  and  thus  do  we  see 
imaged      nature  itself  immortal  life  and  immortal 


69 


swedenborg's  cosmology. 


use  in  a  higher  sphere,  after  the  original  form  is 
dead. 

The  supremely  human  formative,  the  first  or  celes- 
tial aura,  is  universal ;  and  thus  prior  to  suns  and 
systems.  The  second  aura  must  also  come  into  ex- 
istence, before  the  satellites  and  planets  can  be 
created,  for  these  exist  by  the  compression  of  the 
particles  of  that  aura.  They  are,  in  fact,  afloat  in 
it,  carried  on  its  solar  tide.  The  third  aura,  the 
vegetable  formative,  begins  to  be  woven  about  the 
satellites  and  planets,  as  soon  as  they  leave  the  sun. 
The  aerial  elementary  follows  next  in  the  series. 
Then  water.  Then  the  stuff  of  the  mineral  king- 
dom, the  very  earth  crust  of  the  planet  or  satellite. 

All  these  are  now  at  hand  and  ready  for  vegeta- 
tion to  begin ;  and  as  soon  as  it  begins,  the  planets 
and  satellites  begin  to  give  off,  into  the  interstices 
of  the  aerial  elementary,  spheres  of  inert,  angular 
particles,  indefinitely  ponderable,  which  are  the 
primitives  of  the  whole  family  of  oxygen  and 
sulphur,  and  on  down  the  list.  Nothing  more  is 
needed,  one  might  almost  say,  but  the  dust  of  a 
world,  and  the  living  hands  of  the  bullular  auras  to 
conjoin  that  poor  dust  to  their  own  vital  motions; 
nothing  more  is  needed  but  the  unition  of  the  pass- 
ive of  the  earth's  crust  to  the  active  of  the  auras,  a 
salt  to  a  bullular  form,  and  the  framing  of  these 


70 


SUNS  AND  PLANETS. 


two  into  a  concrete  unit,  reactant  to  the  Divine, — 
able  to  bring  forth  therefrom  spheres  for  present 
and  for  future  use ;  for  the  sphere  remains,  as  we 
have  said,  even  though  the  parent  form  itself  was 
broken  long  ago. 

The  Satellites,  finally,  as  we  have  shown,  are 
bodies  of  a  bubble  constitution, — not  the  constitution 
of  a  bubble  or  bulla  with  an  active  self  directive 
center,  as  the  bulla?  of  the  auras,  but  with  an  atmo- 
spheric or  passive  center,  their  crust  enclosing  a 
volume  of  the  second  aura.  This  bullular  constitu- 
tion of  the  satellites  seems  to  account  for  their  be- 
havior in  their  relation  with  the  planets. 

A  body  of  such  a  constitution,  variable  and  elastic 
within,  cannot  serve  as  an  object  upon  which  the 
pressures  of  a  surrounding  sphere  concenter,  able  to 
react  to  them  as  a  stable  fulcrum,  such  as  the  un- 
yielding solid  planets  arc  :  thus  they  cannot  remain 
stably  in  place,  as  a  pure  passive  subject  of  converg- 
ing pressures  ;  nor  are  they  able  as  little  suns  to  serve 
as  the  active  soul  or  parent  of  a  developing  system. 
This  relegates  thems,  for  their  freedom  and  their  ex- 
istence, to  occupy  the  circumambient  sphere  of  some 
other  center. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


THE  NATURAL  ATMOSPHERES  AND 
WATER. 

The  Solar  Vortex.  The  envelope  of  the  sun. 
and  the  surrounding  volume  of  the  second  aura,  con- 
stitute the  solar  vortex.  The  mass  of  the  second 
aura  is  created  around  any  star  or  sun  by  its  ac- 
tion in  or  upon  the  first  or  universal  aura,  and  the 
mass  or  volume,  so  brought  into  existence,  is  there- 
after inseparable  from  that  star  or  sun.151  This 
volume  of  second  aura  takes  the  shape  of  a  great 
vortex  ring.'"'2  The  equatorial  diameter  of  this  ring 
is  as  wide  as  the  extense  of  the  system  which  de- 
pends upon  the  animatory  motions  of  that  star  for  its 
light  and  heat.153  The  polar  diameter  of  this  vast 
vortex  ring  is  much  less  than  the  equatorial  diame- 
ter.154 At  the  poles  of  the  ring  there  are  re- 
entrance-spaces  formed  like  cones,  with  their  apices 
towards  the  solar  centre.155 

151Principia,  part  III.  Chap.  I,  4. 
l52Principia,  part  III.  Chap.  T.  2-6. 
153Principia,  part  III.  Chap.  I.  2. 
»*Principia,  part  I.  Chap.  III.  21. 
tssPrincipia,  part  III.  Chap.  IV. 

72 


NATURAL  ATMOSPHERES. 


The  bulke  of  this  entire  volume  of  second  aura  at 
length  become  disposed  in  a  perfectly  equilibrated 
and  regular  arrangement.150  The  volume  of  the 
vortex  ring  possesses  en  masse  a  perpetual  vortico- 
spiral  circulation,  as  well  as  a  general  axillary  rota- 
tion.1"'7 Tbe  axis  of  the  general  rotation  passes 
through  the  cones,  and  is  from  West  to  East,  as  this 
is  the  course  of  the  revolution  of  the  planets  in  their 
orbiting  around  the  sun ;  and  the  planets  revolve 
around  the  sun  chiefly  because  they  are  buoyed  and 
borne  along  by  the  rotating  motion  of  the  vortex 
itself.158 

When  the  bulla?  of  this  vortex-volume  of  second 
aura  are  thus  fully  arranged  and  connected,  the 
bulla?  nearer  tbe  sun  being  the  more  compressed, 
then  the  perpendicular  flow  (N-S)  of  the  vortex  as 
a  whole  will  be  impeded  by  the  necessity  that  the 
swifter  currents  near  the  sun  should  wait  upon  the 
dragging  slowness  of  motion  in  the  circumference.159 
But  the  general  rotary  motion  (W-E)  will  remain 
in  unimpeded  actuality  for  the  whole  mass.  Hence 
the  general  axillary  motion  of  the  whole  ring  will 
make  a  full  revolution,  while  the  vortex  en  masse 

150Principia,  part  III.  Chap.  XI.  i. 

357Principia,  part  I.  Chap.  III.  22;  Chap.  VI.  36,  ct  seq. 

158Principia,  part  III.  Chap.  XI.  3. 

"•Principia,  part  I.  Chap.  III.  23. 


73 


swedenborg's  cosmology. 


achieves  only  a  single  step  of  the  N-S  or  vortexing 
advance.160  Hence  the  rotary  motion  of  the  volume 
of  the  vortex  around  its  axis  will  be  rapid.  But  its 
other  motion,  its  perpendicular,  vortex,  or  N-S  flow 
will  be  tranquil ;  and  as  it  were  of  a  serene,  almost 
latent  current  and  pressure.101 

The  other  or  vortex  motion,  at  the  polar  cones  of 
the  solar  vortex,  is  from  North  to  South.  This  is 
assured  because  the  earth  lies  in  the  course  of  the 
general  flow  of  the  solar  vortex ;  and  the  current  of 
that  flow  passes  over  the  earth  from  its  south  to  its 
north  pole,  "and  so  tends  back  into  its  vortex."18* 

Moreover,  as  the  endeavor  and  motion  of  this  vor- 
tex current  is  not  exactly  perpendicular,  or  in  a 
straight  line  from  South  to  North,  but  always  acts 
with  a  certain  simultaneous  side-trend  and  effort 
from  West  to  East,  arising  from  its  intrinsic  vortico- 
spiral  activity,  with  a  sort  of  screw-thread  twist, — 
this  general  twisting  action  of  the  vortex  of  second 
aura  or  magnetic  element,  in  its  passage  over  the 
earth,  will  tend  to  roll  and  revolve  the  earth  itself 
around  and  around  on  its  axis.103    And,  as  the  sec- 

1G0Principia,  part  I.  Chap.  III.  23. 

161Principia,  Tart  II.  Chap.  XV.  3,  4;  Part  III.  Chap. 

I.  2. 

162Principia,  part  IT.  Chap.  XV.  3.  4.  5. 
163Principia,  part  III.  Chap.  XI.  3- 


74 


NATURAL  ATMOSPHERES. 


oncl  aura  everywhere  interpenetrates  the  bullae  of 
the  ether,  the  air,  the  waters  of  the  earth,  and  all  its 
layers  of  upper  soils  and  minerals,  it  lays  hold  of  the 
globe  as  it  were  by  slender  but  omnipotent  fingers, 
and  turns  it  about  day  by  day.104 

The  Bull.e  of  the  Second  Aura  are  dilated  to- 
wards the  circumference  of  the  volume,  and  more 
and  more  compressed  towards  its  center,  until  this 
increasing  compression  terminates  abruptly  in  the 
extreme  condensation  of  the  encrusting  flamy  me- 
tallic envelope  or  body  of  the  starry  sun.165  Thus 
the  envelope  or  body  of  a  sun,  and  its  vortex  of  sec- 
ond ether,  form  as  it  were  one  body;  and  the  two 
rotate  as  one.  Or  we  may  perhaps  call  the  volume 
of  second  aura  about  the  sun  a  sort  of  atmospheric 
extension  of  the  sun's  envelope.  And  it  is  in  such 
intimately  graded  connection  therewith  that  the  two 
necessarily  turn  about  as  one,  as  a  man's  body  and 
his  sphere  make  one ;  or  as  it  is  with  the  magnetic 
needle  and  the  magnetic  sphere.  And  as  the  iron  of 
the  magnetic  needle  is  turned  about  by  the  turning 
about  of  its  sphere  by  a  finer  elemental  vortex,166  so 
here  we  may  consider  that  it  is  the  living  vortex 
flow  of  the  primal  aura,  both  interpenetrating  and 

"*T.  C.  R.  30. 

1C5Principia.  part  III.  Chap.  XT.  1  ;  part  T.  Chap.  IX.  4. 
lccPrincipia.  part  II.  Chap.  XV.  8.  par.  2. 


75 


swedenborg's  cosmology. 


surrounding  the  volume  of  second  aura,  which  turns 
it  •  continually  and  bears  it  along,  and  the  flamy 
crustal  body  of  the  sun  with  it,  so  that  the  two  nec- 
essarily revolve  as  one.167 

Hence  the  envelope  or  crusted  body  of  the  sun  it- 
self is  in  continual  rotation,  in  the  same  direction 
as  the  planets  travel.  And,  moreover,  whenever  in 
that  enveloping  flamy  crust  of  the  starry  sun  the 
breaking  solar  bubbles  we  call  sun  spots  are  per- 
ceptible, these  also  are  seen  to  be  carried  along  in 
the  same  general  direction ;  as  if  they  also  travelled 
around  the  sun. 

The  circumfluent  volume  of  the  aura  of  the  solar 
vortex  never  penetrates  into  the  active  interior  space 
of  a  star.10s  The  spiraling  curves  of  the  vortex 
therefore  circle  about  it.  as  if  they  embraced  its 
space  round  about,  in  soft  arching  curves.  From 
this  there  results  a  peculiar  irregularity  in  the  abso- 
lute rotation  of  the  flamy,  half-fluid  encrusting  en- 
velope of  a  star  or  sun.  The  northern  half  of  the 
envelope  always  rotates  a  little  faster  from  west  to 
east  than  the  southern  half. 

The  solar  vortex,  including  the  sun-envelope,  al- 
ways possesses  some  trace  of  the  two  motions  proper 

i"Principia,  part  I.  Chap.  IX.  5;  part  TI.  Chap.  I.  I,  2. 
E.  A.  K.  part  II.  312. 

,csFrincipia,  part  III.  Chap.  IV.  2. 


70 


NATURAL  AT  M  OS  PHERES. 


to  the  intrinsic  vortico-spiral  conatus  of  its  bullae. 
The  currents  of  the  vortex  gyre,  near  and  about  the 
sun,  are  therefore  not  only  in  their  common  rotary 
motion  about  the  axis  of  the  vortex ;  but  they  retain 
also  their  common  endeavor  and  pressure  along  the 
lines  of  the  vortex  or  progressive  motion ;  although 
this  progressive  or  vortex  motion  of  the  aura  vol- 
ume is  extremely  slow.  The  stream  of  this  motion 
moves  of  its  own  impulse  and  nature  in  a  large  full 
half  curve  from  north  to  south.  If  the  effect  of  this 
slower  subsidiary  motion  be  considered  separately 
from  the  swifter  and  chief  rotary  motion,  it  will  be 
apparent  that  the  general  rotary  movement  of  the 
upper  part  of  the  vortex  volume  near  the  sun 
would  gain  a  little  on  that  of  the  lower. 

For  the  general  slant  of  the  curve  of  this  subsi- 
diary progressive  motion,  from  the  north  pole  of  the 
sun's  envelope  to  its  equator,  will  coincide  in  general 
with  the  common  rotary  motion  of  the  sphere.  It 
therefore  adds  itself  thereto,  producing  a  trifling  ac- 
celeration of  the  absolute  speed  of  that  rotation. 
From  the  equator  of  the  sun's  envelope  to  its  south- 
ern pole,  the  reverse  of  this  will  be  true.  The  slant 
of  the  curving  subsidiary  motion  will  be  counter  to 
the  common  rotary  motion  of  the  sphere,  and  will 
subtract  therefrom.  It  is  as  when  a  man  on  board 
a  boat  paces  the  deck  back  and  forth,  now  going 


77 


swedenborg's  cosmology. 


with  the  general  stream  of  the  boat's  motion,  and 
now  against  it. 

The  fact  that  the  northern  hemisphere  of  the  sun's 
half  fluid  envelope  rotates  from  west  to  east  a  trifle 
faster  than  the  southern  hemisphere,  a  fact  indi- 
cated in  Swedenborg's  postulates  as  to  the  two  direc- 
tions of  advance  present  in  a  true  vortex  circulation, 
has  been  noted  by  astronomical  observation. 

The  Active  Solar  Centre,  of  living  animator v 
force  within  this  envelope  or  body,  acts  that  anima- 
tory  motion  continually  into  its  enveloping  body, 
as  a  motion  of  alternating  expansion  and  contrac- 
tion ;  and  from  its  body,  so  intimately  one  with  its 
atmospheric  spheres  or  vortex,  the  effect  goes  out 
as  communicated  waves  of  alternate  contraction  and 
expansion  endlessly  running  through  the  elastic 
bu'lae  of  the  surrounding  volume.  Each  recurrent 
expansion  of  the  active  solar  space  sets  the  dense  en- 
ve1ope  about  that  expanding  solar  center  into  sharp 
fluctuations,  which  give  an  impulse  and  pressure  to 
the  elastic  foam-texture  of  the  second  aura  around 
it,  and  starts  a  sort  of  wave,  the  undulatory  pressure 
of  which  runs  outward  from  the  sun  through  the  vor- 
tex volume  wave  after  wave ;  every  impulse  of  the 
sun's  expansions  tending  to  expand  the  vortex  also. 
It  is  as  if  the  solar  space  or  sun  were  the  great  pul- 
monary center  of  its  system,  and  at  each  expansive 


78 


NATURAL  ATMOSPHERES. 


motion  of  that  miracle  of  inner  solar  breathing  the 
whole  vortex  like  a  mighty  breast  lifts  and  expands. 

Light.  Thus  light  is  an  undnlatory  wave  motion 
or  pressure  running  through  the  vortex,  from  the 
sun  outward.  The  impulse,  the  inciting  force,  of 
these  undulations  of  light,  is  the  alternate  expansion 
and  contraction  of  the  active  solar  space  within  the 
sun,  called  by  Swedenborg  its  animatory  motion, 
derived  from  the  reciprocal  cardiac  and  pulmonic 
activities  of  the  Divine  in  His  creation.  That 
light  is  an  undulatory  motion  or  pressure,  see  E.  A. 
K.  part  I.  170:  Lesser  Principia.  118.  121.  130. 
That  the  spring  and  origin  of  light  is  animatory 
motion,  see  E.  A.  K.  part  I.  300.  That  the  origin 
of  the  undulations  of  light  is  animatory  motion  of 
the  sun  and  the  stars,  see  E.  A.  K.  part  I.  170.  That 
the  animatory  motion  itself  is  an  alternate  expan- 
sion and  contraction  perpetually  kept  up,  see  E.  A. 
K.  part  I.  29Q.  That  such  animatory  motion  may 
always  be  truly  called  a  breathing,  see  A.  K.  392.  b. 
That  animatory  motion  is  derived  into  the  universe, 
as  into  the  heavens,  by  the  pulmonic  and  cardiac 
motions  which  the  Lord  acts  into  the  Spiritual  Sun, 
see  D.  L.  \Y.  392.  That  the  interior  activity  of  suns 
and  stars,  in  their  use,  is  immediately  the  act  of  the 
spiritual  Sun  within  them,  for  if  withdrawn  they 
would  collapse,  see  D.  L.  W.  157. 


79 


swedenborg's  cosm-oloi  ;v. 


Outside  the  vortex-ring  Volume  of  Second 
Aura,  the  first  aura  exists  ;  for  it  is  the  universal  or 
interstellar  aura.100  The  vortex  ring  volumes  of  a 
second  aura  exist  as  it  were  submerged  in,  and  em- 
braced all  about,  by  the  first  aura.  The  innumerable 
stars  and  their  vortices  exist  therein  as  local  active 
centers,  where  the  series  of  creative-proceeding  is  to 
be  produced  to  new  localized  ultimat'on  ;  therefore 
the  circling  motions  of  each  volume  of  second  aura 
regard  its  central  star  or  sun. 

The  Deter m i nations  of  the  First  Aura  are  not 
the  same  as  those  of  the  second  ;  nor  does  the  swe^n 
of  its  currents  regard  any  star,  but  they  are  co-ex- 
tensive with  the  breadth  of  finite  creation  170  There 
fore  the  center  it  regards  is  a  universal  one,  indeed  ; 
and  the  light  it  inmostly  carries  is  that  of  God,  the 
Moral  Sun.  the  Sun  of  Wisdom  and  of  Life.171 
Hence  all  the  vortices  of  the  second  aura  ever  creat- 
ed, each  with  its  springing  motion  about  its  own 
active  center,  are  thus  wholly  embraced  around  by 
the  primal  aura  and  borne  deep  in  its  bosom,  and 
are  carried  by  its  supreme  tides,  as  it  were  not 
knowing,  to  such  purposes  and  placvs  as  God  w  ills. 

loaPrincipia,  part  T.  Chap.  VI.  50. 
1T°E.  A.  K.  part  II.  272.  312.  339.  350. 
"IE.  A.  K.  Part  I.  306;  Part  IT.  238,  255,  ct  scq.,  260 
ct  seq. 


80 


X  ATURAL  AT M OSP 1 1 ERES. 

For  by  it  the  universe  is  ruled ;  by  it,  greatest  forms 
and  least  arc  held  together ;  and  by  it,  ends  flow 
through  orderly  sequence  of  means,  to  results.172 

The  first  aura  is  not  only  present  outside  the  vor- 
tex volumes  of  second  aura,  embracing  them  about 
and  holding  their  mass  of  bullae  together  in  a  co- 
herent contiguous  volume;  it  is  present  within  this 
derivative  vortex  also,  filling  the  interstices  between 
every  bulla  of  its  volume,  and  equilibrating  all  things 
therein  by  its  pressure.  Thus  everywhere  within  a 
solar  vortex,  the  bulla?  of  the  first  aura  and  the  sec- 
ond flow  together  in  one  vortex  volume ;  and  noth- 
ing so  small  can  exist  in  that  vortex  that  it  is  not 
bathed  about  and  acted  upon  by  both  the  first  and 
second  auras.173  The  primal  planetary  masses  are 
conditioned  with  this  environment  from  their  first 
moment.  The  bullae  of  the  first  aura  and  the  second 
flow  about  the  primitive  earths,  everywhere  pressing 
their  surface,  urging,  acting,  sustaining  and  mou'd- 
ing  as  by  liquid  hands. 

It  is  the  common  rotary  motion  of  the  vortex 
which  swings  the  primal  earths  about  the  sun  from 
their  first  existence.  And  it  is  a'ong  the  flow  of  the 
vortex,  as  by  the  great  highway  of  a  common 

i72A.  K.  Part  IV.,  (VI.).  2.  6;  E.  A.  K.  Part  II.  272, 
312.  339- 

173Principia,  part  I.  Chap.  IX.  5.  par.  2. 


Si 


swedenborg's  cosmology. 


stream,  that  those  earths  are  carried  outwards  from 
their  common  birth-place,  immediately  around  the 
active  solar  space,  by  widening  circles,  each  to, his 
own  place  and  distance,  there  to  circle  in  its  own 
orbit  and  freedom  everlastingly.  This  distance  is 
not  the  same  for  any  two  earths;  although  the  com- 
mcn  carrier-stream  of  the  vortex  is  the  same  for  all, 
no  two  of  t!  e  primitive  earth  masses  find  their  own 
place  and  freedom  at  the  same  point  of  the  circle. 

So  soon  as  the  great  crustal  envelope  of  the  sun 
collapses  into  the  globular  masses,  an  ordering  ac- 
tion begins  in  these  globes.  Under  the  conditions  of 
the  surrounding  pressure,  the  finites  or  vortex  rings 
of  which  the  spherical  earth  masses  are  composed, 
must  begin  to  slip  into  place  among  each  other,  pole 
to  pole ;  since  that  is  the  mutual  arrangement  in 
which  they  take  up  the  least  room.  Moreover,  all 
the  finites  of  which  the  earth  masses  are  composed, 
are  compounds  of  the  primitives  of  the  Spiritual 
Sun,  and  the  everlasting  reflexive  conatus  of  these 
primitives  to  a  circHng  and  recircling  motion  is 
everywhere  within  them.  Thus  as  soon  as  the 
finites  composing  the  earth-mass  are  adjoined  pole 
to  pole,  a  certain  common  push  and  endeavor  of  the 
whole  mass  will  make  itself  felt,  from  thejmsh  and 
endeavor  common  to  each  finite  of  that  mass.  In 
this  manner  the  enormous  volume  of  the  finites  con- 


82 


NATURAL  ATMOSPHERES. 


stituent  of  any  planetary  mass,  will  almost  at  once 
come  to  be  arranged  into  a  perfect  order  and  flow ; 
slow,  impeded,  indeed,  but  yet  real,  and  emulous  of 
tbe  circulation  in  the  interior  of  a  finite.  So  soon  as 
this  occurs,  the  primitive  earth  will  cease  to  be  a  per- 
fectly round  bad-like  mass,  will  become  flattened  at 
the  poles,  in  emulation  also  of  the  generic  configura- 
tion of  a  finite.  At  this  stage  each  earth  will  assume 
the  character,  and  possess  the  active  powers,  of  a 
finite ;  a  large  finite,  or  substantial.  ''Every  planet, 
therefore,  however  great  ...  is  only  a  larger 
finite ;  the  difference  between  the  two  consisting  only 
in  degrees  and  dimensions.''174 

The  powers  and  motions  of  earths,  as  astronomi- 
cal bodies,  refer  themselves  back  to  this  interior  con- 
dition. The  very  conatus  to  axillary  motion  they 
g2t  from  this  interior  arrangement  and  circulation 
of  their  substance.17"'  And  it  is  from  this  intrinsic 
ground  that  all  earths  derive  their  endeavor  and 
power  to  that  large  motion  en  masse,  which  de- 
scribes continually  about  the  sun  the  great  circle  of 
their  orbits :  and  presents  a  very  image  in  vast  out- 
line of  a  finite  left  in  its  free  and  unimpeded  mo- 
tion.170 

174Principin.  part  III.  Chap.  V.  par.  I. 
"sprincipia,  part  III.  Chap.  XI.  2. 
I7uPrincipia,  part  III.  Chap.  XI.  3. 


83 


swedenborg's  cosmology. 


The  primitive  earths,  however,  differ  in  size,  as 
finites  also  differ  in  size.  No  two  earths,  probably, 
in  all  the  universe,  are  exactly  of  the  same  dimen- 
sions. Thus  earths  would  come  under  the  law  of 
finites.  the  law  that  all  of  their  orbits  are  of  the  same 
general  type,  but  differ  in  size ;  small  finites  de- 
scribing- orbits  of  small  diameter,  and  large  finites 
of  large  diameter.  The  diameter  of  the  native  orbit 
of  a  finite  is  always  in  direct  proportion  to  the  mass 
of  the  moving  body  ;  so  it  is  with  the  earths  of  the 
universe  of  so  many  sizes ;  yet  each  describes  an 
orbit  strictly  commensurate  to  its  individual  power 
and  form  and  mass. 

The  Progress  of  the  Earths  to  their  Orbits. 
And  now  a  word  more  as  to  the  progression  of  the 
primitive  earths  from  the  sun  outwards  to  their  or- 
bits. As  the  second  aura  is  a  foam-structure  of  a 
relatively  coarse  order,  the  ether  of  a  solar  vortex 
cannot  be  regarded  as  a  wholly  frictionless  medium. 
This,  however,  does  not  oppress  the  motions  of  the 
planets.  That  stream  is  frictionless  to  us,  with  the 
flow  of  which  we  ourselves  spontaneously  run. 
Thus  the  aura  of  the  great  solar  vortex  is  friction- 
less to  the  planets,  which  are  borne  along  in  its  cir- 
cling stream,  as  boats  might  ride  in  some  great 
maelstrom  flow  of  the  sea.  Nor  is  there  even  so 
much  of  friction  as  is  implied  in  this  image.  The 


84 


NATURAL  ATMOSPHERES. 


earths  are  not  only  passively  borne  in  this  revolving 
flow ;  they  go  spontaneously.177 

The  primitive  earths,  all  starting  alike  from  the 
near  presence  of  the  sun,  travel  by  successively 
widening  circles  from  the  region  of  greater  density 
to  less ;  until  each  earth  reaches  that  particular  circle 
in  the  vortex,  where  it  is  in  individual  freedom  in 
its  relation  with  the  vortex  and  with  respect  to  its 
own  proportional  size  and  mass ;  and  where  its  own 
conatus  to  orbital  motion  coincides  with  the  diameter 
of  the  revolving  volume  of  aura  which  carries  it. 173 
Thus  each  earth  finds  its  own  free  and  rightful  place 
in  the  stream  of  the  great  whirling  vortex  which 
carries  it  about  the  parent  sun ;  and  it  thereafter 
continues  to  move  on  that  particular  wave  of  the 
circling  stream,  as  its  own  particular  orbit,  age 
after  age  unceasingly.  Nor  will  there  ever  be  any 
friction  to  stop  the  motion  of  the  earths ;  even 
though  the  second  aura  is  not  abstractly  a  frictionless 
medium.  Still  less  is  an  aura  in  motion  frictionless. 
But  the  stream  we  go  with  is  frictionless  to  us ;  and 
where  the  aptitude  and  power  of  the  interior  circula- 
tion coincide  with  the  measure  and  flow  of  the  outer 
cosmic  stream  in  which  it  is  borne,  as  in  every 
stream  of  Providence,  there  then  exists  the  image 

177Principia.  part  III.  Chap.  XI.  3. 
17SPrincipia,  part  III.  Chap.  IV.  7;  Chap.  XI.  5. 


85 


swedenborg's  cosmology. 


and  ideal  of  freedom  itself ;  and  the  push  and  flow 
and  determining  crowd  of  the  surrounding  stream  is 
unperceived. 

During  the  time  taken  by  the  raw  mass  of  a 
primitive  earth  to  pass  by  circling  gyres  from  the 
sun  to  its  own  place  and  orbit  in  the  vortex,  many 
things  are  accomplished  for  it;  an  1  many  things 
happen  to  it. 

First  and  foremost  of  its  conditioning  is,  that  it 
leaves  the  central  region  of  the  vortex,  where  the 
density  of  the  medium  is  high  and  where  the  undula- 
tions of  light  and  heat,  communicated  by  the  anima- 
tor}- motion  of  the  solar  center,  are  in  their  fullest 
and  most  immediate  force.  From  this  region  each 
earth  travels  by  gradations  through  regions  where 
the  vortex  density  continually  lessens,  and  also  the 
undulatory  pressure  of  the  outgoing  waves  of  light 
and  heat.  And  alike  when  near  the  sun,  as  when  de- 
parting from  it.  the  earth  mass  is  surrounded,  acted 
upon,  compressed,  and  carried,  by  the  vortex  itself, 
in  which  vortex  both  the  first  aura  and  the  second 
are  distinctly  together.  For  the  first  aura  is  in- 
terstitially  between  all  the  bulke  of  the  second  aura ; 
and  so  surrounds,  embraces,  and  urges  them  all. 

The  Third  Aura,  or  Ether.  Now  the  primitive 
earth  masses,  having  the  constitution  of  solid  balls, 
cannot  expand,  on  reaching  an  environment  of  lesser 


86 


NATURAL  ATMOSPHERES. 


density,  as  the  sun  spots  and  the  satellites  do.  What 
happens  to  the  earths  is  contrary  to  this.  Their 
mass  grows  smaller.179  For  when  an  earth  has  en- 
tered a  region  of  somewhat  lessened  density,  the 
finites  composing  the  surface  layers  of  that  primeval 
earth  mass,  loosen  and  free  themselves,  especially  on 
the  side  turned  towards  the  sun,  and  whole  outer- 
most layers  of  the  dense  earth-mass  lift  softly  and 
lightly.  The  finites  freeing  themselves  from  the 
bond  of  their  mutual  pressure,  begin  to  float  in  little 
finest  curves  and  turns,  according  to  their  own  in- 
herent will  of  motion.  By  this  means,  in  the  course 
of  the  repeated  diurnal  rotations  of  the  earth,  it  be- 
comes surrounded  by  a  sort  of  free  halitus  or 
sphere  of  the  same  substance,  the  same  substantial, 
as  those  of  which  its  core  is  composed. 

So  soon  as  this  halitus  of  fourth  finites  begins  to 
arise  from  the  earth,  as  if  the  earth  were  evaporat- 
ing away  at  its  surface,180  it  everywhere  enters  and 
circles  in  and  among  the  bulla?  of  the  surrounding 
vortex.  Then  little  volumes  of  the  first  or  celestial 
aura  gather  up  the  finites  of  this  floating  sphere, 
press  them  together,  and  form  of  them  minute 
spherical  envelopes  of  a  diameter  commensurate 

179Principia,  Part  III.  Chap.  V.  i  ;  Chap.  XI.  2.  3. 
1S0Principia.  part  TIT.  Chap.  V.  2. 


87 


swedenborg's  cosmology. 

with  their  native  orbits.  The  valuing  of  first  aura, 
which  formed  such  an  envelope  of  fourth  finites 
about  itself,  remains  in  that  envelope,  as  it  were  the 
soul  and  active  interior  space  of  that  particular  bulla  ; 
while  the  envelope  is  as  a  sort  of  body,  formed  from 
the  fine  primeval  mother-mass  of  that  particular 
earth  ; — a  body  which  the  central  volume  or  soul  of 
celestial  aura  has  formed  to  itself  for  the  per- 
formance of  a  new  and  more  ultimate  degree  of  vital 
use.181  Thus  it  is  that  as  the  earth  passes  outwards, 
all  around  it  there  begin  to  originate  new  bullae,  of 
a  larger  size  than  any  hitherto ;  and  these  new  bullae 
are  as  entities  begotten  by  the  first  or  celestial  aura 
as  an  active  from  the  finites  of  the  mother  earth,  as 
reactive.  These  bulla?  are  the  very  bullae  of  the  third 
degree  of  atmosphere,  technically  called  the  ether. 

These  new  bullse  differ  from  those  of  tbe  first  and 
second  aura,  not  only  by  their  greater  size,  but  in 
having  envelopes  which  are  perfectly  round,  and 
without  polar  openings  or  cones.  Thus  it  is  im- 
possible for  bullae  of  the  third  degree  of  atmosphere 
to  be  colligated  pole  to  pole  and  form  long  pores  and 
channels,  in  the  same  way  as  can  the  bullae  of  the 
first  and  second.182 

ls,Principia,  part  III.  Chap.  V.  2-7;  Chap.  X.  par.  2. 
182Principia,  part  III.  Chap.  V.  4. 


88 


NATURAL  ATMOSPHERES. 

As  we  see  with  bulke  of  warm  vapor  or  steam,  the 
tendency  is  to  rise  from  the  surface  of  the  earth, 
where  they  are  formed,  into  a  higher  region,  and 
that  this  tendency  is  great  in  proportion  to  their 
heat ;  so  here  with  the  bullae  of  the  third  atmosphere 
or  ether.  As  fast  as  they  are  formed,  being  as  it 
were  exalted  and  empowered  by  the  beams  of  the 
sun  near  at  hand,  they  expand  and  mount  on  all 
sides  from  the  earth  ;  and  as  they  mount,  new  bulla?, 
shaping  from  below,  follow  them,  and  still  new  ones 
are  shaped  at  the  surface  of  the  earth  and  pass  up- 
war  1.  Thus  an  atmosphere  of  new  and  larger  bulke 
of  a  different  type  is  as  it  were  spun  and  woven  as  a 
vestment  about  the  surface  of  the  earth.  The  volume 
of  it  became  very  great.  And  it  did  not  cease  to  be 
formed  in  continually  enlarging  mass,  until  the  earth, 
in  its  farthest  journey  from  the  sun,  entered  regions 
where  his  heat  in  a  marked  degree  grew  less.  For 
when  it  reached  so  great  a  distance  that  the  bulla?  of 
the  outermost  circumference  of  volume  of  ether,  al- 
ready formed,  began  to  lose  the  first  warmth  com- 
municated by  the  near  presence  of  the  radiant  sun, 
then  those  bulla;  of  their  own  accord  no  longer  sped 
away  from  the  earth,  but  as  it  were  drove  back  upon 
it :  in  every  pressure  seeking  to  return,  as  they  chill- 
ed and  contracted.  With  this,  the  further  formation 
of  the  ether  sphere  would  cease.  Thus  about  each 
of  the  primitive  earths  there  was  formed  a  sphere 
89 


swedenborg's  cosmology. 


of  ether,  or  third  atmosphere,  individual  and  as  it 
were  personal  to  that  earth  alone. 

In  all  the  productions  and  changes  characterizing 
the  formation  of  this  third  aura,  each  earth-mass 
must  act  as  reagent  in  the  process  for  that  particular 
volume  originating  around  itself ;  its  own  motor 
powers,  rotary  and  orbital,  are  part  of  the  instru- 
mental means  of  the  production.  Its  own  substance 
is  given  off  from  its  mass  to  form  the  envelopes  of 
the  bullae ;  and  the  site  where  those  bullae  are  first 
fanned  is  immediately  about  its  surface,  where  the 
first  and  second  auras  encompass  and  press  upon  its 
rounded  sides.  To  this  ether  the  eye  is  formed.  To 
this  is  formed  the  common  sensory  p1ane  and  ani- 
mus.183 It  gives  also  the  life-formative  of  the  vege- 
table kingdom  and  of  the  insect  world. .1S4 

The  volume  of  third  aura  or  ether  is  in  no  case 
similar  in  all  respects  on  any  two  earths  of  the  uni- 
verse. Therefore  the  pressure  and  habit  of  its  ac- 
tion differ  on  all  earths  of  creation ;  and  the  play 
of  tlie  living  sensory  organs,  afterwards  framed  to 
receive  and  reciprocate  the  motions  of  this  third  de- 
gree of  atmosphere,  will  differ  on  every  earth  in  the 
universe ;  and  that  so  distinctly  that  sensory  organs 

l88The  Soul,  69.  95.  97.  iot. 
"♦Corp.  Phil. 


90 


NATURAL  ATMOSPHERES. 


framed  to  the  powers  of  this  ether  upon  one  earth,  if 
transferred  to  the  ether  sphere  of  another  earth, 
would  be  without  their  usual  power  of  sense-re- 
ciprocation. The  eye,  seeing  upon  one  earth,  would 
be  blind  upon  another.  The  planes  of  imagination 
would  all  lie  differently.  And  the  vegetation  of  one 
earth  would  be  of  forms  unusual  to  another ;  and  no 
two  worlds  are  the  same  as  to  atmospheres,  earths, 
or  forms  arising  out  of  them.1S3 

This  third  atmosphere  is  the  ground  of  the  celes- 
tial-natural heaven,  the  heaven  of  the  vegetative 
paradises.  And  the  fact  that  the  volumes  of  this 
third  atmosphere  are  as  many  as  the  satellites  an.l 
planets  created,  is  the  elemental  basis  of  the  further 
fact,  that  the  number  of  natural  heavens  is  as  many 
as  the  number  of  satellites  and  planets ;  that  each 
satellite  and  planet  is  surrounded  by  its  own  local 
natural  heaven;  that  their  genius  is  not  alike;  and 
that  the  man  who  has  his  interiors  opened  to  the 
degree  of  the  natural  heaven,  who  lives  in  the  com- 
mon imaginative  sensory,  is  able  to  live  and  make 
his  everlasting  home  only  in  the  near  vicinage  of  the 
surface  of  the  earth  upon  which  he  was  begotten  and 
brought  forth.  For  only  to  the  air  and  ether  of  his 
own  earth  has  his  ear,  his  eye,  his  common  sensory, 

1S5D.  L.  W.  318.    Principia,  part  ITT.  Chap.  II.  3.  4. 


91 


swedenborg's  cosmology. 


and  their  plane  of  life,  been  framed  responsive ;  only 
there  do  men  exist  of  the  same  genius  in  lower  planes 
with  his  own  ,  with  whom  he  may  be  associated,  and 
of  their  life  partake. 

The  Fourth  Aura,  or  Air.  The  like  law  of 
planetary  differentiation  and  localization  exists  for 
the  fourth  atmosphere,  the  aerial  elementary,  which 
is  the  last  of  the  active  bullular  atmospheres  prop- 
erly to  he  called  ethers  or  auras.  The  second  aura 
and  the  primitive  earth-mass  bear  the  same  mutual 
relation  and  office  in  the  production  of  the  fourth 
aura  or  atmosphere,  as  the  first  aura  and  the  mother 
mass  of  the  earth  in  the  production  of  the  third  aura 
or  ether.  The  first  aura  and  the  primal-earth  mass 
are  as  active  and  reactive  in  framing  the  constitution 
of  the  bullae  of  the  third  atmosphere.  The  first  aura 
exists  in  the  internal  or  nuclear  centre ;  the  substan- 
tial or  fourth  finites  of  which  the  earth  is  com- 
posed forming  their  enveloping  bodies.  The  sec- 
ond aura  is  the  active  to  the  reactive  of  the  sub- 
stantiates of  the  primal  earth  in  the  production  of 
a  fourth  aura.  The  bullae  of  this  aura  will  then 
have  a  volume  of  second  aura  as  a  nuclear  centre; 
their  enveloping  body  having  been  taken  from  the 
mother  mass  of  the  natural  earth.  This  fourth  atmo- 
sphere does  not  enter  the  human  body ;  although  it 
has  an  organ  formed  to  itself,  the  ear.  In  this  atmo- 


92 


NATURAL  ATMOSPHERES. 


sphere  the  spiritual-natural  heaven  is  founded.  In 
the  formation  of  the  envelopes  of  the  bulla?  of  the 
fourth  aura,  the  substantial  or  fourth  finites  of  the 
earth  mass  are  not  used  immediately  or  individually, 
but  certain  grosser  finites,  called  fifth  finites,  con- 
creted from  the  fourth  finites  by  free  composi- 
tion. Thus  the  fifth  finites  are  more  ultimate, 
lower,  and  rlnited,  than  the  mass  of  the  planetary 
core  itself.  This  appears  in  all  their  uses.  Indeed, 
to  the  activity  of  the  fifth  finites  our  atmospheric 
fire  is  due,188  the  activity  of  the  fourth  finites  being 
the  elementary  electric  fire.1" 

The  formation  of  fifth  finites  takes  place  at  the 
surface  of  the  planets,  wherever  great  layers  and 
masses  of  the  fourth  finites  have  freed  themselves 
from  old  connections ;  moving  one  among  another 
they  mutually  finite  themselves  into  a  new  and 
more  compounded  grade  of  vortex-ring  entities  than 
has  yet  existed.188 

These  new  finites  possess  all  the  powers  of  the 
previous  finites;  they  have  an  interior  circulation, 
and  spontaneously  rise  and  run  and  circle  in  a  cer- 
tain orbit.1S9   They  move,  however,  far  more  slowly, 

18CPrincipia,  part  III.  Chap.  VIII.  4.  8.  15. 
137  Ibid.  16. 

lssPrincipia,  part  III.  Chap.  VI. 
"•Principia,  part  III.  Chap.  VIIT.  3. 


93 


swedenborg's  cosmology. 


than  the  fourth  finites  do ;  and  the  diameter  of  the 
orhit  they  describe  in  their  motions  is  much  greater. 
When  such  finites,  therefore,  rise  and  move  in 
swarms  over  the  surface  of  the  earth,  the  circle  of 
their  reflexing  activities  will  be  wide  enough  to  in- 
close in  its  limits  a  volume  of  the  bullae  of  the  second 
aura.  Then  that  volume  of  second  aura,  with  first 
aura  bullae  in  its  interstices,  will  convolute  and  roll 
these  finites,  and  form  of  them  relatively  large 
spherical  envelopes.  Of  the  large  bullae  thus  form- 
ed, the  volume  of  fourth  elementary  is  composed.100 
Origin  of  the  Water  Molecule.  The  volume 
of  the  air  or  fourth  atmosphere  was  never  so  large 
as  that  of  the  ether  or  third  atmosphere ;  and  a  large 
portion  of  the  original  volume  has  been  compressed 
into  materia  for  the  earth's  uses.  There  is  now 
left,  therefore,  but  a  comparatively  thin  envelope, 
not  m,any  miles  thick,  pressing  closely  upon  the 
earth's  surface.  This  is  the  atmosphere  the  lower 
layers  of  which  were  compressed  into  the  zvatcrs 
and  grosser  materia  of  creation.  For  the  waters 
which  cover  the  earth,  the  salts  of  the  sea,  the  rocks 
of  its  upper  crusts,  are  formed  directly,  not  from  the 
materia  of  the  planetary  mass,  but  from  compress- 
ions of  that  fourth  aura. 

"oPrincipia,  part  III.  Chap.  VII. 


94 


NATURAL  ATMOSPHERES. 


The  general  cause  of  this  compressive  action  is 
the  passage  of  the  earth,  with  all  its  great  surround- 
ing volumes  of  third  and  fourth  atmospheres  about 
it,  into  regions  of  the  vortex  sphere  far  colder  than 
those  where  the  volumes  of  the  third  and  fourth  at- 
mospheres were  formed.  The  immediate  agency  of 
the  compression  is  the  immense  return  endeavor,  or 
return  pressure  back  upon  the  earth,  of  the  cooling 
and  contracting  bullae  of  the  great  volumes  of  the 
third  and  fourth  atmospheres.  The  sum  of  this 
contraction-endeavor  of  the  whole  vast  spherical 
volume  is  directed  and  massed  from  every  side  to- 
wards the  centre  of  the  solid  resistant  globe  of 
the  primitive  earth.  The  globe  cannot  yield  nor 
can  it  be  pushed  away.  It  is  solid.  And  from 
every  side  like  pressure  comes,  from  like  causes, 
which  sustains  and  prevents  escape.  The  im- 
mense return  conatus  and  effort  of  the  vast  cool- 
ing sphere  of  atmospheric  bullae,  concentrating  its 
radii  in  towards  the  earth,  brings  an  enormous 
pressure  to  bear  upon  the  bullular  texture  of  its  own 
volume  in  the  vicinage  of  the  earth,  and  upon  the 
volume  of  the  fourth  elementaries  particularly ; 
since  that  volume  is  more  ultimate  and  finite,  and 
with  relatively  less  spring  of  interior  resistance  and 
reaction. 

The  bulla?  of  the  fourth  atmosphere  caught  under 


95 


svvedenborg's  cosmology. 


this  cooling  pressure,  and  driven  towards  the  un- 
yielding surface  of  the  planet,  are  as  it  were  com- 
pressed to  their  lowest  and  smallest  dimensions  until 
each  is  reduced  to  a  small,  round,  unyielding  little 
mass.  This  new  little  mass  is  not  homogeneous. 
The  fifth  finites  of  the  envelope  of  the  parent  bullae, 
the  same  as  those  of  the  atmospheric  fire,  will  still 
form  the  exterior  of  the  mass ;  the  third  finites  of 
the  envelopes  of  the  bullae  of  the  second  aura,  en- 
closed in  the  nuclear  centres  of  the  parent  bullae, 
the  same  finites  which  constitute  the  primitives  of 
the  finer  group  of  metals,  will  fill  the  centre.  Thus 
the  new  particles,  spherical  in  form,  non-elastic  or 
solid,  the  first  really  material  thing  formed  in  crea- 
tion, will  consist,  as  we  have  said,  of  two  constitu- 
ents, namely,  the  primitives  of  the  metallic  family, 
and  fifth  finites  or  those  belonging  to  the  later  at- 
mospheric fires. 

Now  these  new,  spherical,  hard  molecules  or 
masses,  thus  formed  by  the  compression  of  the  lower 
layers  of  the  fourth  elementary  or  atmosphere,  are 
actually  the  molecules  of  water.  The  ether,  inter- 
fluent in  their  interstices,  renders  them  fluid.191 

Hence  under  the  enormous  pressure  of  the  cooling 
ether-sphere  about  the  earth,  the  coarse  foam-bullae 

"iPrincipia,  part  III.  Chap.  IX.  i.  2. 


96 


DIAGRAM 


Infinite  Esse. 


First  Natural  Points,  Iniliament  of  Finiting, 
Primitives  of  the  Spiritual  Sun,  Divine  Essence. 


First  Finite. 


Water  Particle 


First,  Universal,  Human  Aur 
lnmostly,  the  Divine  Celestial. 


Second,  Solar,  Magnetic,  Animal  Aura, 
lnmostly,  the  Divine  Spiritilal. 

Ether  ;  Planetary,  Visual,  Electric. 
Vegetative  Aura  ;  Celestial  Ultimate. 

I  I 
Aerial,  Auditory  Atmosphere. 
Spiritual  Ultimate. 


Aqueous  Vapoi, 
Steam. 


N.  B. — Continuous  lines   >)  indicate  successive  formation. 

Dotted  lines  (>}¥i  »)  indicate  influx  into  the  interiors. 


NATURAL  ATMOSPHERES. 


of  the  aerial  elementary  or  fourth  aura,  in  its  layers 
next  the  earth,  begin  to  be  so  hardly  compressed 
that  they  are  each  condensed  into  a  molecule  of 
water.  Then  there  appears  over  the  surface  of  the 
mother  earth  a  mass  of  water,  the  tide  of  which  rises 
higher  and  higher,  as  layer  after  layer  of  the  aura  or 
atmosphere  above  changes  its  nature  an  1  form  un- 
der the  compressing  force,  until  the  pressure  of 
the  upper  atmospheres  is  for  a  time  satisfied  ;  and 
a  great  unsalt  sea,  leagues  in  depth,  covers  the  ball 
oi  the  earth. 


97 


CHAPTER  V. 


SALTS  AND  THE  CRUST  OF  THE  EARTH. 
PROTOPLASM. 

The  Centrifugal  Compressive  Force.  All  the 
compressive  forces  acting  around  an  active  solar 
centre  to  condense  new  and  more  compounded  sub- 
stantiate from  the  foam-texture  of  the  surrounding 
aura,  are  centrifugal  radiant  forces.  The  means 
of  this  compression  is  the  action  of  the  whirling 
gyres  excited  in  the  aura  by  the  presence  and  power 
nf  the  active  centre.  For  the  whirling  volume,  be- 
gun near  the  sun,  everywhere  drives  outward  against 
the  resisting  expanse  of  aura  round  about.  One 
portion  of  the  aura  coerces  and  presses  another  por- 
tion,— the  momentum  of  that  portion  which  is  in  mo- 
tion, acting  against  the  portion  at  rest,  with  a  subtle, 
irresistible  force.  It  is  in  this  manner  that  the  third 
finites  were  compressed  from  the  first  aura,  and  it  is 
thus  that  the  fourth  finites.  of  which  the  planets  were 
shaped,  were  compressed  from  second  aura. 

The  Centripetal  Compressive  Force.  The  com- 
pressing instrumentality  brought  into  action  about 
the  earths,  to  bring  forth  the  waters  and  the  angular 

98 


SALTS. 


particles  or  the  salts,  is  the  very  reverse  of  the  com- 
pressive force  active  about  a  sun.  It  is  a  centripetal 
force,  a  force  originating  not  from  an  expansive  but 
from  a  contractive  effort  of  an  aura  or  ether — not 
from  a  higher  and  finer  foam  ether  in  whirling  mil- 
lion, but  from  a  lower  and  coarser  foam  ether,  in  all 
its  volume  chilling  and  contracting. 

This  type  of  compressive  force  can  only  affect 
planetary  bodies  and  their  immediate  vicinage ;  and 
their  own  surrounding  volumes  of  third  and  fourth 
aura  are  the  ministering  means  of  Jhe  compression. 
This  compression  commenced  at  the  period  when  the 
two  terrestrial  atmospheres,  already  fully  formed,  be- 
gan to  he  carried  by  their  mother  earth  farther  ami 
far! her  from  the  genial  circle  of  greater  solar  light 
and  heat.  For  as  the  mother  earth  carried  them  into 
regions  continually  further  remote  and  more  chill, 
they  themselves  began  to  contract  as  they  cooled  ; 
and  not  only  did  they  thus  contract  individually  or 
as  to  everv  bullular  unit,  but  as  a  whole  or  en 
masse.  Then  the  force  of  the  progressive  cooling 
and  constriction  of  so  vast  a  volume  of  ether,  every- 
where directed  by  narrowing  radii  inward  upon  the 
parent  earth,  began  to  produce  great  and  wonderful 
results. 

The  earth-globe  itself  could  not  be  further  com- 
pressed by  the  contractive  pressures  of  the  cooling 


99 


SWEDEXBORG  S  COSMOLOGY. 


volume  of  ether  thus  determined,  and  as  it  were 
focussed.  upon  its  surface.  For  the  globe  was  al- 
ready absolutely  dense  and  resistant ;  nor  could  it 
be  thrust  from  its  position,  since  it  lay  as  it  were  sus- 
tained on  all  sides  by  centripetal  pressures  and  equal 
force. 

The  Compression  of  the  Fourth  Aura,  or  Air. 
It  was  the  comparatively  small  volume  of  fourth 
aura,  the  aereal  elementary,  massed  about  the  earth, 
that  could  be  affected  by  this  contractive  pressure. 
For  the  volume  of  aereal  elementary  could  be  caught, 
as  it  were,  between  the  anvil  and  the  hammer,  be- 
tween the  earth  and  the  pressing  contracting  ether. 
Something  must  yield ;  and  the  bullae,  large,  slug- 
gish, gross,  of  the  fourth  atmosphere,  were  the  only 
forms  in  that  locality  apt  to  yield. 

Under  the  growing  pressure,  then,  of  the  whole 
contracting  volume,  the  elastic  bulls  of  the  fourth 
aura,  near  the  surface  of  the  earth,  grew  denser  and 
denser,  smaller  and  smaller ;  until  vast  volumes  of 
them  were  reduced  to  small,  hard,  non-bullu'ar, 
spherical  masses,  resistant,  and  inert.192 

The  Primeval  Ocean.  These  new  forms,  hard, 
inelastic,  round,  were  the  primitive  molecules  of 
water ;  and  the  volume  of  such  hard  molecules,  pro- 

1!,:Principia,  part  III.  Chap.  IX.  i. 


IOO 


SALTS. 


duced  about  the  earth,  was  rendered  fluent,  and  the 
molecules  themselves  movable,  one  among  another, 
by  the  ether  or  third  atmosphere  interfluent  in  their 
interstices.193 

There  was  formed  at  length  a  vast  sea  of  such 
water  particles,  miles  in  depth,  fluent  about  the 
planetary  mass.  This  was  the  great  unsalted  sea,  or 
primeval  ocean,  which  first  swept  around  the 
globe.194 

Formation  of  the  Salt  Molecule.  The  effect 
of  the  contractive  pressures  did  not  stop  here.  Com- 
pression was  able  to  go  a  step  further.  The  mole- 
cules or  units  of  this  vast  sea  were  still  spherical  in 
form,  and  being  spherical  their  surfaces  pressed  each 
other  only  at  their  points  of  mutual  contact.  The 
interstitial  spaces  between  them  presented  places  and 
planes  of  less  pressure  or  resistance.  If.  then,  the 
pressure  acting  upon  them  grew  great  enough,  here 
and  there  the  circumference  of  the  hard,  round  forms 
would  begin  to  yield  in  the  direction  of  lesser  press- 
ure, and  as  it  were  bulge  and  give  way  toward  the 
interstitial  spaces.  The  whole  little  mass  of  any 
round  water  particle,  thus  yielding,  would  be  crush- 
ed into  a  new  form,  a  form  moulded  after  the  shape 

lo:'Principia,  part  III.  Chap.  IX.  2. 

194Principia,  part  III.  Chap.  IX.  par.  I  ;  Chemistry, 
Chap.  I. 

IOI 


swedenborg's  cosmology. 


of  the  interstice  existing  between  the  adjacent  round 
particles  which  still  retained  their  integral  round- 
ness.195 

Plate  VIII  represents  nine  molecules  of  water, 
the  central  molecule  being  the  first  to  yield  to  the 
pressure.  As  its  envelope,  composed  of  fifth  finites, 
must  be  the  first  to  give  way,  its  substance  will  pass 
into  the  adjacent  interstitial  spaces,  shown  in  plate 
IX,  and  the  adjoining  round  water  molecules  set- 
tling closer  in  upon  the  crushed  and  yielding  par- 
ticle, it  will  be  pressed  into  the  shape  shown  in  plate 
X  ;  this  shape  will  be  composed  of  a  central  cubic 
block,  consisting  of  the  nuclear  core  of  the  original 
water  particle, — a  cubic  block,  therefore,  of  metallic 
primitives.  At  each  angle  of  this  central  cube  will  be 
a  tetrahedron  block,  formed  of  the  fifth  finites  from 
the  surface  of  the  compressed  particle  of  water. 
This  cubic  block,  Swedenborg  terms  an  alkaline 
particle ;  the  tetrahedral  blocks  are  acid  particles. 
Therefore  the  primeval  sea  salt,  as  a  compound  of 
both  forms,  the  alkaline  and  the  acid,  is  basic.106 

The  sides  of  all  angular  particles  so  produced,  are 
of  course  slightly  concave,  being  moulded  to  the 
convexity  of   the  surrounding   round  particles. 197 

195Chemistry,  chapter  I. 
196Chemistry,  Chap.  XI.  sec.  9. 
107Chemistry,  Chap.  X. 


102 


Plate  VI II 


Group  <>f  Nine  Molecih.es  of  Water. 
Cross  section  :  the  green  represents  fourth  finite*,  the  brown  fifth 


Plate  IX. 


The  Same  Group  as  Plate  VIII, 
with  central  molecule  collapsed. 


Plate  X. 


Formed  by  the  collapse  of  the  central  water  molecules  shown  in  Plates 
VI II  and  IX.  The  green  represents  the  cubical  alkali  salt  particle  of 
fourth  finites,  the  brown  the  triangular  acid  salt  particle. 


SALTS. 


This  fits  them  to  connect  with  any  kind  of  round 
particles  of  suitable  size,  in  a  sort  of  ball  and  socket 
fashion.  It  is  in  this  manner  that  the  crystallization 
of  salt  takes  place ;  the  round  molecular  particles, 
necessary  to  build  up  the  structure  of  the  crystalline 
mass,  being-  furnished  by  the  water  of  crystalliza- 
tion.198 

These  complex  angular  particles,  thus  formed  at 
the  bottom  of  the  ocean,  are  the  very  primitives  of 
the  halogen  salts  and  other  typical  bases.  As  they 
were  actually  formed  in  situ  at  the  bottom  of  the 
sea,  from  water  particles,  and  among  water  particles, 
they  were  formed  most  perfectly  and  most  abund- 
antly. The  water  particles  left  uncrushed  among 
them,  acted  the  part  of  the  water  molecules  of  crys- 
tallization. The  result  was  the  formation  of  a  vast 
layer  of  rock  salt  at  the  bottom  of  the  sea.109  This 
was  the  last  great  effect  of  the  contractive  pressure 
of  the  cooling  ether  volume. 

It  was  by  the  wash  from  this  substratum  of  crys- 
talline salt  that  the  great  primeval  sea  of  sweet  water 
grew  salt,  and  is  to  this  day  the  salt-mother  of 
the  earth  and  storehouse  of  the  basic  angular  parti- 
cles of  creation.200 

The  Ramenta  of  Broken  Salt  Particles.  An- 

198Chemistry,  Chap.  XI.  sec.  3. 
199Chemistry,  Chap.  I.  sec.  5;  Chap.  X.  sec.  2. 
200Chemistry,  Chap.  X.  sec.  2,  XI.  sec.  1 
103 


SWEDEN  B0RGS  COSMOLOGY. 


other  form  comes  into  notice  here,  or  rather  a  part 
of  the  form  presented  by  the  primevally  perfect  ang- 
ular particles  of  rock  salt.  Certain  delicate  wing-like 
projections  exist  on  every  side.  They  are  ramenta 
curved  like  the  blade  of  a  sickle,  thick  on  the  convex 
edge,  but  very  fine  on  the  concave.201 

These  ramenta  are  formed  of  finer  finites  than  the 
main  mass,  disintegrated  from  the  coarser,  which 
exist  in  some  near  interstice.  Every  angular  or  block 
particle  formed  in  that  deep  crystalline  bed  of  salt  in 
the  depths  of  the  primeval  sea,  was  thus  delicately 
winged  at  its  edges.  As  the  sea  dissolved  layer 
after  layer  of  the  salt  particles,  these  delicate  lamel- 
lar portions  were  broken  off  by  the  attrition  of  that 
process ;  and  clouds  as  it  were  of  them  must  have 
been  loosened,  freed,  and  drifted  to  and  fro  in  the 
water  of  the  deep  sea.202 

The  Primitives  of  Carbon.  Forms  of  this  type 
have  potencies  of  use  of  their  own.  They  are  the 
angular  or  inert  particles  which  are  the  mother  or 
passive  particles  generic  to  the  oi's,  the  animal 
spirits,  the  formative  substance  of  animals  and  of 
plants.  Bullular  particles  of  water  vapor,  of  the 
ether,  the  auras,  give  the  active  or  father  element. 

Chemistry.  Chap.  XIV.  I. 
20-Chemistry,  Chap.  XI V.  i 

104 


SALTS. 


The  passive  ramental  fragments  cover  the  en- 
velopes of  the  bulla;,  either  singly  or  in  volume. 
Bullae  of  the  ether  thus  encrusted  and  loaded  with 
the  finest  ramented  edges,  broken  from  the  angular 
particles  of  primeval  salts,  are  thus  the  very  basic, 
generic  factors  of  the  oils  and  spirits  and  the  forma- 
tive substances  of  plants,  or  what  emulates  spirits 
in  them.203 

Now  in  the  depths  of  the  primal  sea,  in  the  plane, 
where  the  bed  of  rock  salt  was  dissolving,  the  condi- 
tions, the  necessary  factors  for  the  formation  of  the 
primal  oils,  or  hydro-carbons,  and  the  formative  sub- 
stance or  seed  of  vegetative  life,  not  only  existed, 
but  existed  abundantly,  and  existed  in  juxtaposition. 
The  attrition  of  the  primal  keen-edged  perfect  salts 
as  they  dissolved  must  have  given  rise  to  a  vast  first 
production  of  such  free  ramental  particles ;  the  ten- 
dency of  which  is  to  attach  themselves  to  any  free 
ether  bullae  or  volumes  adjacent. 

The  first  formation  of  Oils  or  Hydrocarbons. 
Meanwhile,  the  conditions  of  dissolution  of  salt  in 
the  water  would  cause  free  volumes  of  ether  buVx 
to  rise  everywhere  in  bubbles  from  the  depth  where 
the  salt  was  dissolving,  to  the  surface  of  the  sea. 

203Chemistrv,  Chap.  XIV.  sec.  2;  E.  A.  K.  Part  I.  75 
76. 


105 


swedenborg's  cosmology. 


For  the  salt  particles  dissolving  in  water,  Jo  not 
increase  the  volume  of  water,  because  they  only  fill 
and  occupy  the  interstices  of  the  water  particles.204 
Therefore,  as  the  salt  of  the  rock-salt  bed  dissolves 
in  the  wash  of  the  primal  sea  resting  upon  it,  the 
interfluent  ether,  or  "subtle  matter"  rises  to  the  sur- 
face in  the  shape  of  bubbles  ;  and  its  place  is  occupied 
by  the  salts.203  Thus  all  through  the  lower  level  of 
the  sea  where  the  dissolving  salt  is  giving  rise  to  a 
cloud  or  sphere  of  ramental  particles,  the  volumes  of 
displaced  ether  will  be  rising  among  them  and 
mounting  to  the  surface  in  bubbles.  It  was  thus 
that  oils  or  hydrocarbons  first  originated  in  the 
primal  sea.206 

Origin  of  the  Earth-Crust.  Under  the  condi- 
tions just  postulated  for  the  primal  sea,  the  displaced 
and  ascending  bubbles  of  ether  cannot  but  attract 
to  themselves  the  abundant  ramental  particles  or 
flakes  broken  from  the  fine  curving  edges  of  the 
first  angular  or  salt  forms,  and  act  as  their  carriers 
to  the  upper  regions  of  the  sea.  From  this  cause 
there  arises  at  length  a  kind  of  crust,  or  covering- 
over  of  all  the  surface  of  the  quiet  sea.  This  crust 
will  be  composed  mainly  of  the  bullae  of  the  ether  of 

204Chemistry,  Chap.  XI.  sec.  2-6. 
2or,Chemistry,  Chap.  XI.  sec.  5,  par.  2. 
206Chemistry,  Chap.  XIV.  sec.  2.  par.  no.  4. 


106 


SALTS. 


the  third  order,  loaded  thus  with  fine  ramental  par- 
ticles. Among  these  encrusted  bulla?  of  the  ether 
will  be  drifts  and  heaps  of  free  ramental  carbon- 
aceous particles,  together  with  many  salt  particles, 
acid  and  alkaline,  rising  entangled  in  the  groups  of 
ascending  oily  bubbles.  This  first  delicate  crust  will 
be  thickened  continually  from  below,  by  the  new 
ramental-ladened  bubbles  of  ether  rising  from  the 
ocean  depths,  where  the  salt  of  the  great  primal 
rock-salt  layer  is  being  dissolved.207 

Moreover,  some  of  the  ramental  fragments,  car- 
ried above  the  surface  of  the  sea  and  dispersed  there 
by  the  breaking  of  bubbles,  would  readily  transfer 
themselves  to  the  interstices  of  the  elementaries  ,  and 
gather  and  encrust  about  the  bullular  particles  of  the 
watery  vapor,  formed  in  the  lower  layers  of  the 
warm,  heavy  brooding  air  pressing  the  surface  of  the 
sea.  The  latter  form  is  carbonic  acid,  the  "volatile 
urinous  salt"  of  Swedenborg's  Chemistry ;  formed 
also  of  the  exhalations  sent  out  in  the  course  of  the 
purification  of  the  sera  of  the  bloods  in  the  lungs.20" 

20TChemistry,  Chap.  XI.  sec.  5.  last  par.  no.  2;  Chap. 
XIV.  sec.  2.  par.  2.  no  4;  Worship  and  Love  of  God,  14; 
Principia  Part  III.  Chap.  XII.  Preface  to  work  on  Copper, 
P.  379- 

20!<See  D.  L.  W.  420,  423.  Chemistry,  Chap.  XIV.  sec. 
3 ;  sec.  2.  par.  2.  no.  6 ;  A  K.  406.  notes  d.  e. 


107 


swedenborg's  cosmology. 


The  Formative  Substance  of  the  Vegetable 
Kingdom.  The  primitive  globules  of  the  ether-oils 
or  spirits,  the  ramental-laden  volumes  and  bullae 
of  ether,  thus  rising  from  the  depths  of  the  sea,  and 
collecting  on  its  surface,  present  in  very  form  the 
first  union  of  the  bullae  of  the  ether,  as  an  active, 
with  the  first  passive  particles  or  angular  forms  of 
the  earth.209  Such  forms  are  the  lowest  in  the  series 
of  the  three  formative  substances  of  the  degrees  of 
the  organic  individuals,  i.  e.,  the  vegetative.210  For 
the  ether  bullae  thus  surrounded  and  encrusted  by 
the  primal  ramental  fragments,  literally  constitute 
the  life-formative.,  the  cosmic  seminal  principle  of 
the  vegetative  kingdom,  and  of  the  insect  and  cold- 
blooded species  of  the  animal  kingdom.2*1 

This  first  crust,  almost  liquid,  delicately  jelly-like, 
— an  oily  visco-fluid  foam  superinduced  over  the 
surface  of  the  warm  quiet  sea, — was  formed  then  of 
bullae  of  the  ether,  the  atmosphere  of  the  third  order, 
encrusted  and  clothed  about  with  the  finest  passive 
angular  particles,  the  curving  ramental  edges  of  the 

209Worship  and  Love  of  God,  20  note,  25  note. 

-10E.  A.  K.,  part  II.  355.  Ath.  Creed,  pages  8.  30  E. 
A.  K  .  part  I.  76.  A.  E.  1208.  Worship  and  Love  of  God, 
20.  25.    Corpuscular  Philosophy. 

211 E.  A.  K.  part  II.  355.  Corpuscular  Philosophy;  Wor- 
ship and  Love  of  God,  20,  25. 


108 


SALTS. 


primitive  broken  salts ;  these  ramental  edges  being 
broken  away,  in  the  depth  of  the  sea.  in  the  throb 
and  slide  of  its  motion  over  the  rock-salt  bed :  and 
as  the  solid  planet  and  liquid  ocean  revolve,  it  lifted 
and  dissolved  layer  after  layer  of  the  great  salt 
stratum  formed  in  its  depths. 

The  first  Seed- Soil.  We  are  to  think  of  this 
delicate  crust,  then,  as  the  first  ground  of  the  earth. 
We  are  to  think  that  all  its  masses  or  "clods"  of  ra- 
mental encrusted  bullae  were  so  many  masses  of  the 
little  active  elastic  globules,  each  embodying  a  minute 
volume  of  primal  aura,  enveloped  in  fourth  finites. — 
encrusted  with  ramental  angular  particles, — and 
capable  of  acting  as  the  very  formative  substance 
of  individuals,  actively  ultimating  the  vegetative  and 
lower  animal  degrees  of  life.  These  fine  bullae,  thus 
clothed  upon,  or  encrusted  with  such  ramental  par- 
ticles, were  as  little  seeds,  or  ova.  Under  touch  of 
the  celestial  power  and  life  which  they  clothed  about, 
as  soon  as  the  heat  of  the  sun  gave  expansion  to 
their  delicate  surfaces  thev  were  able  to  combine, 
and  as  a  very  vegetative  soul  or  principle,  gathering 
to  themselves  waters  and  salts,  to  initiate  the  pri- 
mordial germinations,  in  simple  individuals,  of  the 
vegetative  and  animalculate  life. 

Thus  the  first  crust  collecting  over  the  warm 
primal  salt  sea.  the  first  ground  formed,  was  com- 


109 


swedenborg's  cosmology. 


posed  as  it  were  of  such  little  bullular  ova,  involv- 
ing the  very  vital  formatives  of  the  vegetable  life, 
and  was  as  it  were  a  soil  of  pure  seed. 

Corroborative  Evidences.  In  corroboration  of 
Swedenborg's  teaching  as  to  the  first  great  basic  belt 
of  rock-salt,  formed  at  the  bottom  of  the  primal 
ocean  surrounding  the  earth,  and  the  origin  of  the 
first  oils  or  hydro-carbons  in  the  primal  ocean,  from 
the  dissolution  and  breaking  up  of  the  salt  particles 
of  the  upper  layers  of  that  stratum,  under  the  wash 
of  the  sea,  the  following  may  be  of  interest. 

The  great  mountains  of  salt,  and  the  beds  of  rock- 
salt  of  the  salt  mines,  are  for  the  most  part  rem- 
nants of  that  great  first  bed  of  rock-salt  formed  in 
the  depth  of  the  primeval  sea.  the  undissolved 
remnants  being  in  later  ages  covered  over  and  pre- 
served by  deposited  strata  of  other  matter.212 

Now,  as  it  happened  at  the  first  age  of  the  earth, 
swiftly  under  the  solvent  action  of  the  water,  that 
the  delicate  ramental  particles  were  detached  from 
the  fine  cubes  and  triangles,  and,  adjoining  them- 
selves to  the  bulla?  or  bubbles  of  the  ether,  gave 
origin  to  the  first  forms  of  oils  or  hydro-carbons ;  so 
later  it  happened,  and  happens  still,  in  the  rock-salt 

2,2Chemistry,  Chap.  I.  sec.  i.  2.  5.  8;  Chap.  XI,  sec.  10 
postscript. 


IIO 


SALTS. 


mines,  but  more  slowly.  And  the  action  of  this 
primal  production  of  the  oils  is  being-  paral1cled  in 
the  buried  rock-salt  beds,  but  on  a  smaller  sca'e, 
and  more  slowly.  Ramental  particles  arc  detached 
by  slow  attrition,  escape  and  attach  themselves  to 
the  adjacent  bulla?  of  the  ether,  both  singly  and  in 
litt'e  volumes,  until  stores  of  such  loaded  bulla?,  the 
hydro-carbons  or  oils  of  the  mineral  kingdom,  are 
formed  in  the  dark  caverns  and  strata  of  the  earth 
and  accumulate  in  great  pockets  or  wells  among  the 
adjacent  pervious  strata.  Bitumen,  asphalt,  naptha, 
petroleum,  are  instances  of  such  forms  thus  pro- 
duced.213 

This  accounts  for  the  fact,  of  so  much  interest  to 
practical  men.  that  inflammable  gas  is  usually  found 
in  connection  with  beds  of  rock-salt.  In  a  great  sa't 
mine  in  China,  as  well  as  in  salt  deposits  in  Hungary, 
gas  is  obtained  directly  from  the  beds  of  rock-salt. 
(Encyclopaedia  Britannica,  article  on  Gas.) 

Moreover  the  Encyclopaedia  Britannica,  article  on 
rock-salt,  notes  that  "the  frequent  association  of 
bitumen  and  petroleum,  with  rock-salt  and  brine,  is 
one  of  the  most  notable  features  in  the  geology  of 
those  substances ;  and  seems  to  point  to  some  un- 

213Chemistry,  Chap.  XIV.  sec.  8. 


Ill 


swedenborg's  cosmology. 


known  condition  of  the  formation  of  the  two  first 
named." 

Growth  of  the  Earth-Crust.  Tims  the  earth 
surrounds  itself  with  water,  and  afterwards  with  a 
fertile  crust,  a  crust  which  in  a  state  of  resolution  not 
onlv  yields  seeds,  but  unfolds  them  into  different 
kinds  of  fruits  and  plants.214  Surrounded  with 
water  without  a  shore,  a  crust  was  superinduced, 
and  all  that  we  now  find  in  the  vegetable  and  min- 
eral worlds  was  enabled  to  enter  the  crust.  This 
crust  was  formed  upon  the  waters  by  the  dissolution 
of  the  parts  in  the  water,  and  the  interjections  of 
finites.  which  emerged  to  the  surface  ;  and  the  crust 
continually  increased  by  the  addition  of  parts  one 
under  another.215 

Protoplasm.  At  first  the  earth  was  as  yet  not 
earth,  but  surrounded  by  an  uncovered  wave,  in  a 
continual  bubbling  and  effervescence  from  i*s  bottom  ; 
presently  the  uncovered  wave  of  the  sea  began  to  be 
covered  by  a  coat,  delicate  and  without  density ;  but 
it  became  dense  as  it  was  increased  by  the  affluence 
of  particles  emerging  from  beneath,  until  it  was  cov- 
ered with  a  surface  crust  of  small  eggs  or  vesicular 
seeds  of  the  future  triple  kingdom,  each  to  come 

214Principia,  part  III.  Chap.  IX  par.  i. 
I15Principia.  part  III.  Chap.  XII. 


I  T  2 


SALTS. 


forth  successively.216  Everywhere  there  was  as  it 
were  something-  living  in  what  was  not  living,  or 
animate  in  what  was  not  animate,  which  at  length 
unfolded  and  opened  itself.217  The  first  things  pro- 
duced in  and  from  this  warm  slime  of  the  sea,  foamy, 
pure  and  tender,  were  the  vegetative  life  and  the 
complementary  forms  of  the  lower  animalculate  life. 
For  this  production  only  three  things  were  neces- 
sary : — 

(i.)  The  finest  yet  primal  oil  globules,  formed  of 
bubbles  of  the  ether,  with  the  finest  ramental  angular 
particles  of  the  earth's  first  salts,  adjoined  to  them 
as  by  a  marriage ;  the  two  being  related  as  the  soul 
and  its  body,  or  as  the  active  center  or  internal  of 
the  sun,  to  its  superinduced  crustal  body. 

(2.)  Angular  particles,  salts,  acids  and  alkalies, 
with  their  concave  sides,  to  act  as  conjunctives. 

(3.)  Water  molecules,  greater  and  less. 

Where  these  are,  with  fostering  heat  from  the 
natural  sun.  with  inflowing  determinants  from  the 
Sun  of  life,  they  may  at  once  be  framed  into  the 
palpitant  jelly-like  mass,  that  vesicular  or  foam- 
structure,  the  protoplasm  which  is  the  physiological 
basis  of  the  embryonic  life,  vegetable  or  animal. 

216Worship  and  Love  of  God,  12-15;  D.  L.  W.,  311-312 
217Worship  and  Love  of  God,  24. 


113 


swedenborg's  cosmology. 


The  life-formative  Functions  of  the  Ether. 
Of  these  three  factors,  the  soul  force  is  in  the  glob- 
ules of  the  oil  forms.  For  the  life-formative,  the 
seminal  principle,  is  in  the  ether,  the  third  degree  of 
the  Divine  Proceeding,  formed  into  atmosphere,  or 
Use  ;  and  each  globule  of  the  oil  has  a  nuclear  vol- 
ume of  this  ether.  "The  first  generating  or  plastic 
force  innate  in  the  seeds  of  vegetable  foetuses  may  be 
likened  to  a  soul.  Such  genitures  are  from  the  con- 
junctive of  the  active  forms  constituting  ether,  with 
the  inert  powers  of  earth."2'*  That  it  is  the  ether  of 
the  third  order  which  is  the  life-formative  of  the 
vegetab'e  forms,  see  E.  A.  K.,  part  II,  355  ;  and  also 
of  the  insect  and  lower  animal  life,  see  Corpuscular 
Philosophy  and  the  previous  references  to  the  Wor- 
ship and  Love  of  God.  But  the  second  aura,  or  the 
ether  of  the  second  order,  is  the  life-formative  of  the 
higher  animal  forms.210.  And  the  first  or  universal 
aura  gives  the  human  life-formative.220  That  such 
is  the  highest  office  in  the  universe,  the  living  office 
of  the  atmospheres,  which  are  the  Proceeding  Di- 
vine, as  to  Use,  sej  the  work  on  the  Athanasian 
Creed,  n.  26,  191. 

2,sWorship  and  Love  of  God,  20. 

21nE.  A.  K.,  part  II.  338,  339.    Corpuscular  Philosophy 
S20E.  A.  K.,  part  II.  339.  350.  352.    Corpuscular  Phil- 
osophy. 


114 


That  this  function,  this  power  of  the  atmospheres, 
is  an  arcanum  hitherto  unknown ;  and  that  it  is  an 
essential  of  atmosphere, — not  only  the  spiritual  at- 
mosphere, but  the  natural, — is  noted  in  the  Ath. 
Creed,  n.  26 ;  where  the  birth  of  insect  forms,  and  the 
origin  of  the  vegetative  form  is  referred  to  the 
natural  or  terrestrial  ether.  To  the  ether  as  the 
vegetative  soul,  the  Apocalypse  Explained,  n.1208, 
adds  its  testimonies.  From  it  is  the  form  of  plants, 
and  the  building  powers  of  coralline  forms. 

Even  the  inert  substances  adjoined,  the  earths,  the 
salts,  the  waters,  have  the  urgency  toward  their 
uses,  springing  from  like  affections  and  conjoining 
with  the  active  forces,  to  bring  forth  the  mutual  off- 
spring of  use  or  concrete  structural  forms.221  For 
the  series  of  finiting,  beginning  in  the  Spiritual  Sun, 
does  not  cease  until  in  its  last  term,  the  quiescent 
matters  of  the  terraqueous  globe,222  in  which  its 
efforts  are  all  gathered  up.22:i  Hence  in  the  ulti- 
mates  of  active  forces,  or  the  ether,  and  of  passive 
forces,  or  angular  particles,  the  creative  power  of 
the  Lord  acts  in  fullness  and  strength.224  This  is 
the  first  sphere  of  all,  the  sphere  of  these  inert  parti- 

M*A.  E.  1210.    D.  L.  W.  310.    T.  C.  R.  470. 
*«T.  C.  R.  33- 
L.  W.  310. 
"*A.  E.  1087. 


"5 


swedenborg's  cosmology. 


cles,  given  off  by  the  salt  of  the  sea  and  married 
with  the  ether  in  the  production  of  the  formative 
substances,  or  active  seminal  principles  of  vegeta- 
tive life.225 

As  for  the  third  ether  itself,  the  nuclear  principle 
of  its  own  bullae  is  a  volume  of  the  primal  or  celestial 
aura,  which  regards  the  Sun  of  Life  alone.  Tt  is  the 
celestial-natural  degree  of  the  Proceeding  Divine, 
from  which  exists  the  conatus  and  actuality,  in  the 
forming  force  of  vegetable  life.226 

Salt  as  the  Conjunctive  of  Oil  and  Water. 
Angular  particles,  or  salts,  act  as  the  intermediates 
or  connectives  of  the  higher  oil  forms,  and  the  lower 
water  forms.  Albumen,  blood,  milk,  are  given  as 
instances  of  this  conjunctive  action  of  salts,  in  fram- 
ing substances  into  forms  plastically  co-active  with 
the  productive  and  operative  forces  of  animal  life.227 

The  type  of  reactive  substances  of  materia  aris- 
ing from  the  coalescence  of  oils  and  "spirits"  with 
water,  by  means  of  the  first  salts,  are  noted  as  char- 
acteristic (if  the  vegetable  as  well  as  of  the  animal 
kingdoms  in  E.  A.  K.,  part  T,  75.  The  Corpuscular 
Philosophy  notes  that  the  whole  vegetable  kingdom 

225T.  C.  R.  499- 
22fiT.  C.  R.  308. 

227Chemistry,  part  Xiy.  sec.  4  (4).  sec.  8. 


Il6 


SALTS. 


is  as  it  were  formed  of  the  little  bulla?  of  different 
kinds,  or  vesicles  less  and  greater,  determined  by 
the  enclosed  ether,  together  with  the  surrounding 
salts.  Revelation  itself  confirms  this  great  testi- 
mony as  to  the  conjunctive  power  of  salt,  which,  it 
is  stated  in  the  Arcana  Ccelestia,  n.  10300,  "conjoins 
water  and  oil,  which  otherwise  are  not  conjoined." 
In  support  of  such  a  derivation  of  the  basic  bullular 
or  foam-structure  of  the  protoplasmic  materia  of 
forms  capable  of  co-acting  with  life,  that  is,  their 
derivation  from  oil,  salt,  and  water,  Butschli's 
famous  work  has  come  with  triumphant  emphasis. 
The  first  successful  experiments,  given  in  his  work 
on  Protoplasm  and  Microscopic  Foams,  were  made 
from  a  bottle  of  olive  oil  that  had  long  stood  in  the 
sun,  and  common  salt  finely  ground,  and  water.228 
For  the  wonderful  work  done  with  such  foams,  the 
interested  reader  is  referred  to  the  original  volume. 
Here  the  quotation  is  adduced  as  a  modern  instance 
of  what  the  Writings  say  as  to  the  powers  of  salts 
to  act  as  a  conjunctive  between  water  and  oil ;  and 
an  experimental  confirmation  of  Swedenborg's  state- 
ment that  the  structural  result  of  such  conjunctive 
action  is  the  production  of  vesicles,  bulke,  or  alveoli ; 
which  foam-type  is  given  as  characteristic  of  the 

22KProtoplasm,  c'c,  pp.  7-17,  by  O.  Butschli,  Trans.  1894. 
Adam  and  Clias.  Black. 


11; 


SWEDENBORG  S  COSMOLOGY. 


structure  of  the  minutest  plastic  particles,  vegeta- 
tive or  otherwise,  in  which  the  life-formative  im- 
mediately clothes  itself  about,  and  acts.  To  the  con- 
firmation of  this,  Andrews'  study  on  the  Living 
Substance  gives  emphatic  testimony,  as  follows, 
"The  structure  of  protoplasm,  throughout  the  sub- 
stance of  all  living  organisms  examined,  except  when 
secondarily  altered,  was  found  to  be,  as  maintained 
by  Butschli,  that  of  a  visco-fluid  foam." 

For  the  origin  of  living  functionating  units  or 
forms,  giving  out  characteristic  spheres, — that  is, 
for  the  bringing  into  existence  of  the  reacting  foam- 
structure,  jelly-like,  plastic,  namely,  the  protoplasm 
of  the  simplest  outermost  forms  of  vegetative  life, 
and  of  the  animal  life  which  is  confined  to  the  vegeta- 
tive or  third  ether  plane, — nothing  is  needed  but  the 
presence  of  water  and  salt  particles,  and  the  primi- 
tive ethereal  oils,  moving  under  the  determination 
of  the  celestial  sphere  in  the  ether  itself,  with  its 
first  produced  vesicles  brooded  and  warmed  by  long 
sunshine,  in  a  moist  pressing  atmosphere. 

Rise  of  Animalculate  Life.  The  first  living 
form  to  open,  to  be  born  in  and  from  this  warm 
slime  of  the  sea,  pure,  tender,  was  the  simplest,  low- 
est vegetative  life,  and  the  complex  lower  forms  of 
animalculate  life,  which  swim  and  fly,  "foetuses 
which  performed  the  exercises  and  offices  of  their 


118 


SALTS. 


life  in  a  state  of  greater  ignorance  than  other  creat- 
ures," as  befits  the  outmost  life-formative,  bodied 
in  organs  without  basis  of  self-respective  reflux.229 

In  the  shaded  depths  of  the  sea,  where  the  ethar- 
bubbles,  tangled  in.  did  not  rise,  or  did  not  rise  far, 
their  plastic  force,  as  a  seminal  principle,  coacting 
with  homogenous  exhalations  of  particles  from  be- 
low, framed  the  living  forms  of  the  deep  sea 
ooze,  the  Foraminifera,  whose  little  day  of  life  is 
given  to  secreting  into  and  about  their  tender  bodies 
firmer  matters,  and  delicate  shells.  When  their  own 
day  of  life  is  over,  the  fine  shells  they  lived  into  be- 
ing, stay.  And  of  the  accumulations  of  myriad  gen- 
erations of  such,  our  basic  limestones,  even  our  basic 
siliceous  formations,  are  posited.230  Indications 
remain  still  of  the  old  source  which  Swedenborg 
postulates  for  the  origin  of  such  forms,  and  the  con- 
ditions of  salts,  and  ramental  or  carbonacious  parti- 
cles in  their  life  environment.  "Limestones  often 
contain  so  large  a  proportion  of  bituminous  matter, 
as  to  give  off  a  distinct  odor  of  petroleum  when 
struck  with  a  hammer."281 

Later,  the  larger  creatures,  the  scarcely  living 

229Worship  and  Love  of  God.  18.  25. 
230Physical  Geology,  by  S.  H.  Green.  Chap.  4.  sec.  II. 
231Rocks.  Rock  Weathering,  and  Soils,  by  G.  P.  Mer- 
rill, page  145. 


119 


swedenborg's  cosmology. 


corals,  set  their  tiny  rock-bound  bodies  as  steps  for 
successive  generations  to  climb  by,  to  upper  levels  of 
island  ring  and  reef.  But  over  all  the  smooth  won- 
der of  the  crustal  covering  of  the  sea,  the  living 
foam,  the  outputs  of  the  seeking  root,  and  the  ting- 
ing leaf,  began  to  be.  Thus  the  first  vegetative  pro- 
toplasm took  its  rise  in  and  from  the  purely  jelly-like 
crustings  of  the  primal  sea,  where  the  globules  of 
ether-oil,  the  salts,  the  tangled  mass  of  finites,  the 
water  particles,  all.  as  they  outwardly  were  warmed 
softly  by  the  sun  shining  through  the  mists,  were 
inwardly  touched  to  living  action  by  the  celestial 
aura,  imminent  in  every  particle  of  ether-foam.  And 
to  this  first  source  and  conditionment  of  the  spon- 
taneous generation  of  primal  forms  of  vegetative  and 
animalculate  life,  the  conditions  under  which  the 
hell-broods  of  evil  insect  forms  and  evil  animal- 
culae  came  first  and  do  still  come  to  spontaneous 
generation,  give  the  testimony  of  their  mimicry. 
For  they  originated  in  "stagnant  lakes,  marshes, 
rank  and  fetid  bodies."232  And  the  plastic  force  of 
nature  flowing  into  the  ethers,  acts  to  originate 
forms,  everywhere  and  anywhere,  "whenever  homo- 
genous exhalations  are  present  in  nature."233 

232A.  E.  1201. 

»»A.  E.  1208,  1201. 


120 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE    FIRST    VEGETATIVE  FORMATION, 
AND  ITS  LIVIXG  SERVICE  IN  PRE- 
PARING  AN    ATMOSPHERE  FOR 
BREATHING  CREATURES. 

Tin:  Divine  ix  Ultimates.  The  floating- ground 
upon  the  primeval  sea  was  the  first  ultimate  ground 
in  which  the  Lord  the  Creator  began  to  shape  large 
organic  forms  of  use,  or  integral  recipients ;  for 
from  the  ultimate  ground  and  out  of  it.  the  Lord 
raises  up  recipient,  reactive  forms,  and  quickens 
bodies  of  use ;  and  this  He  can  do  because  in  the 
soils  and  ultim'ates  of  the  waters  and  basic  salts  of 
very  earth  the  Divine  Proceeding,  through  the 
spiritual,  exists  in  termination.  And  in  that  termi- 
nation all  its  conatus  and  endeavor  is  to  return  and 
again  be  conjoined  more  consciously  and  more 
nearly  with  the  Infinite,  its  Source.234 

Moreover,  this  first  ultimate  and  ground,  spread 
evenly  upon  the  surface  of  the  sea,  was  an  especial 
ground,  as  it  were  all  seed.    For  according  to  Swe- 

234D.  L.  W.  171,  310,  314.  T.  C.  R.  470.  A.  E.  1209, 
i2io.  1223 


121 


swedenborg's  cosmology. 


denborg's  laws  of  forms  and  their  powers,  the 
constitution  of  oils  and  formative  fluids,  the  very 
floating  crust  of  hydro-carbons  collecting  over  the 
primal  sea,  presents  the  first  actual  union  between 
the  volumes  of  the  ether  and  the  finest  particles 
broken  from  the  compressed  angular  forms  of  the 
terraqueous  salts.  Thus  this  primal  ground  was 
itself  everywhere,  in  its  degree,  apt  for  the  recep- 
tion of  lit j  and  beginning  of  motion;  and  under  the 
touch  of  the  Divine  hand,  delicately  touching  with- 
in, and  the  warm  sun  conspiring  without,  its  fine 
globules  were  everywhere  able  to  act  the  part  of  a 
formative  substance  and  very  seed  of  vegetative 
forms,  in  their  place  and  degree  reactive  to  life. 

Thus  of  these  primeval  ethereal  oils  and  water, 
with  the  salts  of  the  sea  to  serve  as  conjunctives, 
the  Lord  Himself  acting  through  the  medium  of  the 
ether  existent  in  each  oil  bubble,  framed  the  first 
coarser  basic  corporeal  foams ;  throbbing,  moving ; 
obeying  life  ;  in  which  all  the  typical  forms  of  the 
creative  series,  passive  as  well  as  active,  were 
simultaneously  existent. 

In  this  manner  on  the  warm  sea  were  brought 
into  existence  the  first  forms  of  the  protoplasmic 
foams:  vegetative,  simple,  full  of  potencies.  The 
ether  within  acted  as  a  soul,  a  father,  and  stamped 
its  own  foam  likeness,  and  its  own  recipience  and 


122 


VEGETATIVE  FORMATION. 


obedience  to  the  Divine  influx,  upon  the  forms  thus 
builded.  The  salts  of  the  earth,  its  basic  angular 
forms,  lent  mother  body  and  form ;  and  as  passives, 
bounded  active  forms,  gave  them  terminus,  cor- 
porated  their  determinations  and  excited  their  ac- 
tivities in  determinate  and  rhythmic  motions.*  In 
each  such  least  pin-point  form,  composed  of  such 
subtle  basic  protoplastic  foams,  the  gracious  mould- 
ing ether  gathered  up  a  million  particles  of  earth, 
ramental  particles  and  salts  and  molecules  of  water 
a  million  millions :  and  all  those  millions  of  par- 
ticle?, in  themselves  all  scattered,  sundered,  self- 
helpless  for  all  their  evolving  conatus  within  them, 
the  ether  swung  and  arranged  into  one  vegetative 
form,  concrete,  integral,  after  its  kind  receptive  of 
and  coactive  with  the  Infinite  Esse.  Moreover  hav- 
ing builded  those  scattered  particles  into  such  a 
form,  the  same  flowing  ether,  which  had  been  the 
formative    substance,    still    held    them  together, 

""Throughout  nature  the  passive  is  associated  with  the 
active,  and  this  in  order  that  the  passive  may  break  and 
limit  the  forces  of  the  active  body ;  otherwise  powers 
would  not  be  bounded  and  would  have  no  sphere  .  (A.  K. 
4QT.)  The  agent  does  not  know  its  terminus  except  by  its 
own  reagent,  by  which  it  is  determined  into  definite  mo- 
tions and  thus  into  alternations  of  motions.  (Diseases 
of  the  Fibers,  395.) 


123 


swedenborg's  cosmology. 


through  all  their  little  day  of  use.  For  to  create  is 
not  only  to  form,  but  to  hold  together  afterward  as 
well. 

First  Vegetative  Forms.  .  Then  first  vegetative 
growths  began,  soft  roots  went  down.  Frail  waterv 
leaf  spread  out.  Millions  of  successive  generations 
were  formed  and  died.  Upon  the  cumulative  soil 
of  the  bodies  of  the  past  vegetative  lives,  the  spring- 
ing new  generations  shaped  with  firmer  fibre  and 
stem  and  higher  growths.  As  the  soil  grew  deeper, 
its  resources  of  primitives  of  concrete  angular  forms 
grew  more  varied  and  of  firmer,  more  individual  cast. 
For  each  new  generation  of  the  vegetative  progeny 
builded  into  its  very  body  not  alone  the  primal  ele- 
ments simple  and  few,  of  which  the  first  bare  vege- 
tative foams  were  framed,  but  all  the  dejecta  mewtr 
bra  of  the  parent  bodies  of  past  years'  growth,  were 
taken,  inbuilded  as  new  inert  particles  and  forms 
serviceable  to  constitute  the  firmer  fibre  of  ascend- 
ing and  differentiated  vegetative  forms.  Thus  the 
vegetative  kingdom  itself,  as  it  were,  ascended  and 
unfolded  from  simplest  beginnings  of  vegetative 
foams  reactant  and  quick  to  life,  to  multiplex  and 
widely  differentiated  forms ;  and  this  quickly  and 
sweepingly  in  the  gracious  even  heat  and  nourish- 
ing moisture  of  those  primal  seasons. 

Few  and  simple  were  the  primitives  of  inert  par- 


124 


VEGETATIVE  FORMATION. 


tides  the  primal  sea  could  give  for  the  first  organic 
building;  comparatively  simple  and  undifferentiat- 
ed the  vegetative  forms  possible  to  be  framed  from 
them.  But  once  let  these  simple  vegetative  bodies 
or  forms  begin  to  coact  to  life,  and  each  one  becomes 
as  a  new  world,  the  matrix  and  creatrix  of  new 
forms ;  a  new  world  of  working  use,  to  prepare  from 
the  old  material'  new  and  varied  store.  Each  least 
vegetative  form  takes  the  old  salts  of  the  sea,  and 
carves  them  into  new  and  divided  forms.  The 
growths  riot  hither  and  thither,  in  the  accidents  of 
their  existence.  The  bodies  of  vegetation  grow 
firmer  and  firmer,  and  death  comes  to  seal  their 
basic  use.  "Chiefly  by  the  aid  of  the  vegetative 
kingdom,"  the  Corpuscular  Philosophy  says,  there 
are  formed  at  last  marvelous  varieties  of  new  frag- 
ments, inert,  like  some  new  species  of  angular  par- 
ticles, no  two  of  the  infinite  number  quite  alike. 
Thus  there  is  brought  into  existence,  as  it  were,  a 
new,  a  second,  earth  or  soil,  brought  forth  upon  the 
primal  earth  and  from  it,  by  means  of  the  vital 
energy  and  happy  accidents  of  the  individuals  of  the 
primal  vegetative  kingdom.  This  use  of  providing 
a  store  of  finer  and  more  varied  shapes  and  powers 
of  inert  particles  is  so  important  to  all  formation, 
that,  without  it,  there  could  never  upon  the  earth  be 
formed  bodies  of  more  differentiated  and  varied 


125 


swedenborg's  cosmology. 


receptivity  than  those  of  the  first  foam  cells  of  the 
warm  sea,  nor  could  animal  bodies,  of  higher  differ- 
entiation and  life  than  the  amoebic,  ever  arise ;  nor 
men  ever  appear.  For  to  the  body  of  their  forma- 
tion is  necessary  not  only  the  existence  of  the  king- 
doms proceeding ;  but  the  cumulative  result  in  varied 
store  of  concrete  angular  particles  and  spheres  of 
diverse  substance  and  form  collected  during  long 
generations  of  the  life  and  death  of  those  kingdoms ; 
so  great,  so  microcosmic  a  variety,  of  such  ultimate 
form,  is  necessary  to  frame  this  cunning  and  uni- 
versal organic  form  of  the  human  creature.  For 
the  human  form  must  be  a  microcosmic  form,  even 
in  respect  to  those  angular  particles,  if  it  is  to 
image,  coact  with,  and  ultimately  receive  as  an 
organic  foothold  the  fulness  of  the  outgoing  creat- 
ive and  formative  life  of  our  Lord,  so  that  it  may 
be  the  living  tabernacle,  corporeal,  quick,  of  the 
Divine  Human.  Uses,  so  high  in  life,  so  deep  to 
religion,  are  involved  in  the  ultimates  of  the  earth 
and  the  sea. 

Thus  the  dissolution  of  plants  contributes  to  the 
mineral  kingdom  ;  all  as  it  were  goes  to  form  a  new, 
more  plastic  and  varied  mineral  kingdom.  For 
the  third  "form  of  use"  stored  in  the  treasure  house 
of  the  mineral  kingdom,  (what  we  call  inorganic 
chemistry),  "arises  from  plants  fallen  to  diust,  and 


126 


VEGETAT I VE  I-'OR  MATION. 


from  the  remains  of  animals,  and  the  continual 
evaporations  and  exhalations  of  them  which  mix 
with  earths  and  form  the  soil."235 

Thus  the  life  and  death  of  the  successive  genera- 
tions of  the  vegetative  forms  contribute  to  the  possi- 
bility of  an  ascending  evolution  of  successively  mure 
differentiated  and  complex  forms  upon  the  earth; 
and  are  absolutely  necessary  to  the  bringing  into 
existence  the  forms  of  animal  nature,  with  indefi- 
nitely great  range  of  variety.230 

But  there  is  something  more  important  still ;  two 
uses  of  the  vegetative  kingdom  as  yet  not  touched 
upon.  Every  unit  of  organic  form,  every  individ- 
ual,— beginning  with  every  smallest  simplest  in- 
tegral individual  of  the  vegetative  kingdom,  al- 
though it  be  framed  of  billions  of  particles  of  basic 
salts,  inert  fragments  and  watery  molecules, — yet  is 
builded  and  held  together  by  the  ether,  in  an  in- 
tegrity emulous  of  the  Unity  of  the  Divine  Esse. 
Hence  it  gets  its  emulous  title  of  individual.  While 
it  remains  integral  or  individual,  as  such  it  is  given 
in  itself  an  interior  circulation,  emulous  of  the  re- 
flexing  circle  in  God  Man.  As  such  it  is  given 
emulous  creative  or  protoplasmic  powers,  powers  of 

235D.  L.  W.  313. 

-3(iD  L.  W.  318;  Worship  and  Love  of  God,  20. 


127 


swedenporg's  COSMOLOGY. 


forming-  a  forthgoing  volatile  sphere  or  emanation 
"consubstantiate''  with  itself;  objectized  to  itself; 
and  always  lending  itself  aptly  to  a  recreation  of 
such  a  spiritual  form  as  that  of  which  it  was  pri- 
marily part.  This  latter  power  is  its  passive  ana- 
logue and  potency  complementary  to  the  active 
power  and  endeavor  of  the  primitives  of  the  spirit- 
ual Sun,  always  to  form  man,  because  primarily 
consubstantiate  with  God  Man,  the  sole  Substance 
or  Esse,  and  proceeding  as  an  emanation  or  sphere 
from|  Him. 

The  Preparation  oe  an  Atmosphere  for 
Breathing.  The  endeavor  hidden  in  the  outgoing 
emanations  of  the  latter  type,  in  the  vegetative  king- 
dom,— that  is  an  emanation  of  the  fragrant  essences 
and  oils,  volatile,  ethereal  saps,  spirits,  and  sweet 
odors,  especially  abundant  when  the  vegetative  king- 
dom has  risen  to  the  grace  and  productive  dignity 
of  flowers  and  fruits, — comes  to  sweet  evolution  of 
use,  in  the  impregnated  air  around.  For  from  the 
substantial  particles  of  such  fragrant  odors  and  es- 
sences given  off  from  flowers  and  herbs  into  the 
ambient  air,  the  plastic  ether  first  produced  insect 
forms  ;  thus  arose  in  nature  the  province  of  insects, 
varied  in  color  as  the  mother  petals  which  sent  their 
sweet  bodies  odorouslv  forth  for  that  ascending  use  ; 
breathing  thus  the  longing  of  the  very  substance  of 


128 


VEGETATIVE  FORMATION. 

the  vegetable  body  to  arise  to  animate  and  more  self- 
conscious  form  in  its  use  and  recipiency  of  life ; 
and  such  is  the  story  which  the  Writings  tell  of  the 
origin  of  insect  forms,  in  the  intrinsic  conatus  of  the 
very  substance  of  the  vegetable  plane  towards  fuller, 
more  distinct  reception  of  the  animations  of  life. 
For  as  there  is  a  continual  endeavor  of  the  minerals 
of  the  earth  towards  vegetation,-37  so  everywhere 
there  is  an  effort  of  the  very  substance  of  the  vege- 
table growths  toward  vivifTcation.233  In  both  cases 
this  ascending  use  to  higher  degrees  of  form  and 
life,  these  uses  by  which  their  very  bodies  prepare 
and  contribute  themselves  to  become  integral  part 
of  a  higher  degree  of  organic  recipiency  of  life,  is 
by  means  of  their  spheres,  their  emanations.-39 

This  is  the  sacred  use  of  the  flowers  and  fruits 
an  1  the  perfumes  of  the  vegetable  forms  ;  their  Sab- 
bath day  use  to  the  animate  kingdom.  In  this  they 
give  forth  the  sphere  of  their  purifications  and  their 
fructifications  to  the  ether  around ;  and  of  that 
sphere  the  living  Lord,  acting  in  that  ether,  moulds 
the  bodies  of  the  insect  world,  loving  the  flowers  as 
their  honey-nursing  mothers  still. 

*«D.  L.  W.  61-65. 
2S,D.  L.  W,  62. 

239T.  C.  R.  J99.  585,  ^70.  Trea'ise  on  Copper,  Preface. 
D.  L.  W.  310. 


I2Q 


swedenbokg's  cosmologv. 


But  there  is  an  every  day  use  performed  through 
the  common  green  leaves  of  plants,  in  which  the 
whole  of  vegetation  daily  prepares  and  provides  for 
the  great  kingdom  of  the  larger  lung-breathing  ani- 
mals,— a  use  so  important  that  when  we  know  it 
we  understand  why  the  vegetable  kingdom  had  to 
exist  before  the  world  was  ready  for  the  animal 
kingdom  of  creatures  with  red  blood  and  opened 
imperative  lung-life.  For  the  same  kingdom,  which, 
Swedenborg  says,  breathes  forth  daily  into  the  at- 
mospheres that  aerial  salt,  that  atmospheric  salt 
which  in  the  lungs  changes  the  venous  blood  to 
arterial,  must  be  that  kingdom  which  first  provides 
the  store  thereof,  in  preparation  for  the  advent  of  the 
lung-breathing,  red-blood  forms  of  life. 

The  Aerial  Salt.  There  is  a  certain  "salt," 
Swedenborg  says,  consisting  of  angular  particles, 
which  exists  dissolved  in  the  interstices  between  the 
bulla;  of  the  fourth  aura  (the  aerial  elementary), 
just  as  the  sea-salt  exists  dissolved  in  the  inter- 
stices between  the  round  molecules  of  water.  This 
salt  Swedenborg  calls  the  volatile  aereal  salt.  It 
constitutes  the  common  aliment  which  the  lungs 
supply  to  the  blood.  It  is  in  fact  the  supply  of  this 
salt  that  changes  the  venous  blood  into  arterial 
blood,  during  its  passage  through  the  lungs.  This 
volatile  aer?al  salt  consists  of  tetrahedral  particles, 


VEGETATIVE  FORMATION. 


and  is,  therefore,  an  ''acid  salt,"  according  to  Swe- 
denborg's  doctrine  of  forms.  It  belongs,  moreover, 
to  the  same  family  of  substance  as  sulphur.  Lacking 
this  salt  the  globules  of  the  animal  spirit  cannot 
combine  to  compound  the  red  blood.  For  although 
some  other  substance  always  furnishes  the  central 
cubic  connective,  it  is  the  particles  of  this  tetrahe- 
dral  aereal  salt  alone  which  normally  infills  all  the 
many  corner  interstices  of  triangular  form,  still  left 
after  the  central  cubic  grouping.240 

This  volatile  aerial  salt  is  exhaled  by  the  vege- 
table kingdom  from  the  grosser  salts  and  com- 
pounds upon  which  the  roots  feed.  The  salts  or 
mother  stuff  with  which  the  current  of  the  sap  is 
impregnated,  (that  sap  or  vegetative  blood  in  which 
the  formative  fluid  of  vegetation  is  present),  takes 
what  it  wants  of  those  compounds,  sundering  and 
recombining ;  while  the  watery  vegetative  blood 
climbs  the  woody  fibre  to  the  cells  of  the  leaves ;  in 
these  cells,  as  with  the  serum  of  the  blood  in  the 
lungs,  it  exhales  a  dewy  breath,  carrying  with  it 
all  the  inert  particles  of  the  original  compound  salts 
which  are  superfluous  to  its  needs  ;  the  sap  current 
then  returns  by  other  fibrous  ways  to  its  ultimate 
cellular  buildings. 

240A.  K.  406,  485;  E.  A.  K.  part  I,  50-100,  506.  Post. 
Tracts,  Red  Blond,  chap.  IV  and  V. 


svvedenborg's  cosmology. 


These  superfluous  salts  thus  sublimated  from  the 
basic  compounds  of  the  plant  food  in  the  current 
of  the  vegetative  blood,  and  exhaled  along  with 
waten'  vapor  from  the  surface  of  the  leaves,  are 
said  to  be  the  very  volatile  aerial  salts  with  which 
all  the  lower  atmosphere  or  aura  of  the  earths  is 
impregnated ;  the  same  salt  which  in  the  lungs 
changes  the  venous  blood  into  arterial.241 

To  sum  up:  this  "salt,"' — volatile,  atmospheric, 
dissolved  in  impalpable  space,  as  sea  salt  in  solution 
is  dissolved  in  water:  this  salt-acid  of  the  sulphur 
family :  this  salt  which  is  drawn  into  the  lungs  at 
every  inspiration  and  to  which  is  due  the  change  of 
venous  blood  into  arterial  during  its  passage  through 
the  lungs :  this  "salt"  sublimed  from  its  food  stuffs 
by  every  vegetative  growth  and  continually  exhaled 
from  every  leaf  into  the  surrounding  space,-  along 
with  the  transpiring  current  of  water  which  breaths 
forth  from  the  leafy  lung,  when  the  sunlight  opens 
its  exspiratory  pores ; — this  salt,  by  all  its  bond  and 
chain  of  uses,  is  the  atmospheric  gas  which  we  call 
oxygen. 

Tins  Salt  is  identical  with  Oxygen.  For 
the  gas  oxygen  is  dissolved  in  the  apparent  impal- 

24 ]T.  C.  R.  470,  585;  A.  E.  1084;  D.  L.  W.  313;  Prin- 
cipia,  part  III,  cliap.  IX,  4;  Documents,  302,  On  Odours; 
A.  K.  406,  485;  E.  A.  K.  Part  I,  596. 


132 


VEGETATIVE  FORMATION. 


pable  space,  as  salts  in  solution  are  dissolved  in 
water.  Oxygen  belongs  to  the  acid  end  of  the  peri- 
odic system  of  chemical  elements ;  it  is  of  the  same 
family  or  genus  as  sulphur, — the  sixth  family  of  the 
periodic  system  being  headed  by  oxygen  and  sul- 
phur. The  gas  Oxygen  is  the  common  aliment 
which  the  lungs  supply  to  the  blood :  and  to  the  gas 
oxygen,  which  the  venous  blood  imbibes  during  its 
passage  through  the  lungs,  is  due  its  changes  into 
arterial  blood.  Moreover,  the  leaves  of  the  vege- 
table kingdom,  under  the  touch  of  sunlight,  when 
their  transpiration  current  is  flowing  freely,  do  per- 
petually exhale  oxygen  into  the  air  round  about, 
from  every  little  pore. 

In  this  derivation  of  the  gas  oxygen.  (  Sweden  - 
borg's  volatile  aerial  salt), — by  sublimation  from 
the  salts  of  the  earth  and  water,  through  the  in- 
strumentality of  the  vegetable  kingdom,  the  vola- 
tile aereal  salt  being  formed  by  the  divided  salts  in 
the  plant  food,  superfluous  to  its  uses, — there  are 
three  essential  things  new  to  our  knowledge.  First, 
the  uses  it  subserves  to  the  blood  of  a  higher  king- 
dom while  composing  itself  into  an  entity  or  blood 
of  a  more  ultimate  degree.  This  use  is  new.  in- 
deed, to  our  knowledge.  For  it  is  Swedenborg 
alone  who  is  able  to  tell  us  how  a  lower  degree  of 
substance  can  be  compounded  out  of  a  higher;  just 


133 


swedenborg's  cosmology. 

what  factors  are  needed ;  and  where  they  come- 
from.  Something  of  the  great  doctrine  of  inter- 
mediates is  involved  here,  and  the  Benjamin  laws 
of  composition.  But  of  such  things  experimental 
science  cannot  teach  us  ;  only  the  laws  of  forms, 
and  the  constitution  of  degrees  can  teach  us. 
Second,  The  derivation  of  this  superfluous  volatile 
salt  thus  exhaled,  chiefly  from  the  grosser  non- 
compounded  food-salts  imbided  by  the  roots,  by  a 
process  of  division  and  sublimation.  Third,  The 
surety  under  the  law  that  the  series  of  existence  and 
continuance  is  always  the  same  as  that  of  formation 
and  beginning, — that  if  the  activity  of  the  vegetable 
kingdom  perpetually  performs  this  use  to  the  at- 
mosphere, it  performed  it  in  the  first  place.  And 
therefore  that  all  our  stock  of  atmospheric  oxygen, 
without  which  red-blooded  breathing  creatures  can- 
not exist,  was  first  prepared  for  the  world  by  the 
activity  of  that  same  kingdom.  This  is  the  great 
common  service  or  use  performed  by  the  vegetable 
kingdom  to  creation,  preparatory  for  the  existence 
of  breathing  creatures. 

An  interior  view  of  the  first  point  is  given  by 
Swedenborg  only.  F>ut  to  the  second  and  third 
points  of  this  new  knowledge,  experimental  data 
have,  within  a  lifetime,  afforded  happiest  illustra- 
tions.   Phipson's  series  of  experimjents  with  grow- 


134 


VEGETATIVE  FORMATION. 


ing  plants  are  decisive  upon  the  subject.  Accord- 
ing to  the  result  of  those  experiments,  when  plants 
are  grown  under  a  bell  glass  in  an  atmosphere  of 
pure  nitrogen,  (or  pure  hydrogen),  the  root  being 
supplied  with  earth,  carbonic  acid,  and  water,  the 
plants  thrive ;  they  absorb  water  and  carbon  com- 
pounds from  the  roots,  and  secrete  oxygen  from 
the  leaves,  until  the  atmosphere  under  the  bell  glass 
is  rendered  by  this  means  alone  richer  in  oxygen 
than  the  surrounding  outside  air.  The  carbonic 
acid  (CG2)  is  not  directly  decomposed  into  carbon 
and  oxygen.  From  the  C02  plus  water  (H,0)  are 
formed  various  sugars,  starches,  cellulose,  fatty 
acids,  and  the  like;  and  the  superfluous  oxygen  thus 
liberated  is  exhaled  through  the  leaves  into  the 
air.242 

Moreover,  from  conclusions  reached  on  the  basis 
of  experiments  with  microscopic  plants  abounding 
in  rain  water  and  other  water  exposed  to  the  action 
of  sunlight,  it  would  seem  that  plants  of  the  sim- 
plest order  evolve  oxygen  more  copiously,  weight 
for  weight,  than  plants  of  the  higher  orders ;  and 

=*2Articles  by  Dr.  T.  L.  Phipson.  F.  C.  S.,  "Chemical 
News,"  1893,  March,  June,  August.  November ;  1894,  No- 
vember; Principia,  part  111,  chap.  IX,  4;  T.  C.  R.  470; 
Corpuscular  Philosophy;  Documents.  302.  On  Odours, 
sec.  I. 


I3S 


swedenborg's  cosmology. 


the  deduction  is  made  from  these  experiments  that 
the  primitive  atmosphere  of  the  earth  did  not  con- 
tain oxygen  gas,  and  that  the  vegetable  kingdom 
was  certainly  the  means,  and  the  sufficient  means, 
whereby  oxygen  gas  was  placed  in  the  atmospheric 
volume ;  with  the  manifest  further  conclusion  that 
therefore  vegetable  life  must  have  preceded  animal 
life  upon  the  earth  ;  and  that  a  main  office  of  the 
growing  plants  of  that  primal  vegetable  kingdom 
was  this  gradual  excretion  of  oxygen  gas  (the  vola- 
tile aerial  salt  of  Swedenborg's),  into  the  atmo- 
spheric volume .  preparatory  for  the  advent  of 
breathing  animal  life. 


136 


CHAPTER  VII. 


A  CHAPTER  IN  GEOLOGY. 

Risk  of  the  Floating  Vegetative  Land.  Tho 
primordial  sea  bubbling  from  its  depth  was  the 
mother  of  primal  chemical  elements  and  combina- 
tions ;  the  crystalline  liquor  of  all  rocks,  the  chyme  of 
all  organisms.2"  In  its  deeps  above  the  primal 
rock  salt  layer,  the  newly  dissolving  salt  gave  the 
ramental  particles  for  the  first  hydro-carbons  of  the 
world  formation  ;  which,  as  a  very  chyle  and  milk 
of  vegetative  births  ascended  continually  through 
the  sea  to  its  surface  in  bubbling,  organizing,  oily 
foams.  All  along  its  ascending  path,  if  anywhere 
detained,  there  began  to  shape  the  new  born  masses 
and  filaments  of  vegetative  formation,  close  to  the 
borders  of  the  inorganic.244  On  the  surface  of  the' 
sea  the  collecting  layer  of  the  oily  ether  foams, 
under  the  heat  of  the  brooding  sun,  panted  and  pal- 

24-iChemistry.  chap,  on  Primeval  Ocean,  par.  5.  (6) 
par.  8;  chap.  X.  sec.  2.  (5)  4.  (4)  ;  chap.  XI.  sec.  5.  par. 
2.  (2)  :  chap.  XIII.  sec.  12;  chap.  XIV.  sec.  8.  5.  (2). 

-44Worship  and  Love  of  God.  chap.  I.  14.  15 ;  Prin- 
cipia.  part  III.  chap.  XII;  Preface  to  Treatise  on  Copper. 
Par.  5-  "■ 


137 


swedenborg's  cosmology. 


pitated  in  all  its  bubbles  to  the  rhythms  of  light  and 
heat;  and  at  each  expansion  the  Living  Infinite 
within  and  around,  acted  with  enlarged  scope,245 
to  touch,  order,  and  hold  together  the  microscopic 
bubbles  of  the  floating  foams  into  forms  of  simplest 
vegetative  use.  Thus  the  first  low  vegetative  or- 
ganisms took  form,  ramified,  matted  together ;  and 
from  this  beginning  grew  the  vast  floating  islands, 
continent  wide,  of  interknit  vegetable  growths.  For 
age  after  age,  so  long  as  the  continually  dissolving 
salt  of  the  crystalline  bed  of  the  ocean  fed  them  with 
streams  of  fresh  carbonaceous  aliment  from  below, 
they  would  continue  to  grow,  until,  Swedenborg 
says,  a  floating  vegetative  land,  a  mile  in  thickness, 
covered  over  the  surface  of  the  breeding  sea,  like  a 
great  crust ;  then,  grown  almost  too  heavy  to  sus- 

243The  animatory  motion  of  heat,  in  these  microscopic 
foams,  and  its  necessary  and  conjunctive  action,  with  the 
Living  Infinite  in  the  production  of  vitally  organized  forms, 
in  and  from  the  foam  structure,  is  paralleled  by  the  neces- 
sary operation  of  the  brooding  heat  upon  the  egg.  It  is 
said  by  Swedenborg  that  the  living  point  of  the  seed  can- 
not actuate  the  substance  of  the  egg  to  ordinate  it  into 
organic  form  until  warmth  has  already  excited  "a  certain 
species  of  activity"  in  its  molecules  or  parlicles;  for  only 
as  they  are  in  such  a  state  of  excited  activity,  are  they 
"prepared  and  obeisant  to  the  living  activity."  E.  A.  K. 
part.  I.  308. 


138 


GEOLOGY. 


tain  itself  longer,  it  settled,  submerging,  breaking  to- 
ward collapse  and  subsidence  to  the  ocean  bed.246 
Thus,  on  the  surface  of  the  sea,  in  that  early  epoch, 
the  immense  vegetative  growth  of  the  carbonifer- 
ous layers  of  geological  record,  began  to  exist,  were 
nourished  from  below,  and  at  length  submerged, 
and,  thus  were  preserved  for  the  use  of  after  ages. 

First  appearance  of  the  Nitrogen  Family  or 
the  Ammonias  and  the  Phosphates  originat- 
ing in  the  Primordial  Sea.  The  bubbling  streams 
of  displaced  ether,  encompassed  and  coated  by  ra- 
mental  fragments  from  the  newly  dissolving  salt  in 
the  depths  of  the  ocean  bed,  presents  the  generation 
and  actual  making  of  the  first  hydrocarbons  for  the 
use  of  the  nascent  world  and  almost  its  whole  future 
store  of  carbon.  In  addition,  along  with  those  as- 
cending streams  of  hydro-carbons  there  would  seem 
necessarily  to  have  been  intermingled  also  the  first 
nitrogen  compounds,  probably  in  the  form  of  am- 
monium compounds,  and  also  the  first  forms  of 
phosphorus ;  thus  the  primal  ocean  would  itself  sup- 
ply the  first  members  of  the  nitrogen-phosphorus 
family  of  the  periodic  system.    For,  according  to 

246Worship  and  Love  of  God.  20.  21  ;  Preface  to  the 
Treatise  On  Copper,  par.  5.  7.  Chemistry.  Chapters  on 
formation  of  rock  salt  strata,  in  situ,  in  the  bottom  of  the 
sea ;  and  on  the  constitution  and  origin  of  oils. 


139 


swedenborg's  cosmology. 


Swedenborg,  the  inner  constitution  of  the  nitrogen 
compounds  closely  pattern  that  of  the  hydro-carbons 
or  oils.  It  also  presents  a  volume  of  ether  enclosed 
and  crusted  around  with  angular  particles  derived 
from  dissolving  salts.  Only,  in  the  case  of  the  nitro- 
gens, such  particles  are  not  ramental,  or  scale-like 
fragments,  but  are  of  the  finest  triangular  form.247 
Such  finest  trigons  would  result  abundantly  in  the 
depths  of  the  primal  ocean,  both  by  the  comminu- 
tion of  the  large  triangular  acid  particles  through 
the  action  of  vegetation  or  otherwise ;  as  also  by  a 
breaking  off  of  the  sharp  triangular  corners  of  the 
ramental  particles.  Thus  the  simple  nitrogen 
compounds,  (probably  of  ammonium),  would 
certainly  seem  to  have  had  their  primal  generation 
and  start  in  the  depths  of  the  sea,  for  certain  am- 
monium compounds  are  classed  with  the  mineral 
oils  in  the  chapter  on  the  constitutional  form  of  oils 
and  spirits.248  And  the  motion  of  the  waves  of  the 
sea  emitting  phosphoric  light  from  the  breaking  up 
of  the  finest  invisible  particles  of  salt  in  solution, 

247Chemistry.  XIII.  sec.  i.  sec.  2.  (1).  Worship  and 
Love  of  God.  chap.  I.  note  22. 

24SChemistry.  chap.  XIV.  sec.  2.  sec.  8.  2.  Among  the 
mixtures  of  salt  and  water  with  the  primal  mineral  oils 
originating  in  the  deep  sea  Sal  Ammoniac  is  directly  men- 
tioned. 


140 


GEOLOGY. 


would  seem  to  indicate  the  sea  as  the  primal  source 
also  of  the  primitives  of  phosphorus. 

The  simple  nitrogen  compounds  thus  arising 
would  furnish  the  supply  of  nitrogen  necessary  as 
the  mother  stuff,  to  compound  the  flesh  and  sub- 
stance of  forms  of  animate  life  all  through  the  sea  ; 
and  tin"  ascending  current  would,  together  with  the 
carbons,  year  after  year,  continue  to  supply  streams 
of  fresh  nutriment,  like  streams  of  new  blood,  to 
the  roots  of  the  floating  vegetative  world  above  it. 
All  such  particles  not  actually  detained  and  used  by 
the  growing  vegetation,  would  finally  arise  higher, 
into  the  elementary  realm  above  the  vegetative  crust, 
and  by  the  breaking  of  the  carrier  bubbles,  vapor 
like,  be  dispersed  into  the  interstices  of  the  bulhe 
of  the  surrounding  ether  volume, — there  to  add 
their  quota  to  the  collecting  store  of  the  atmo- 
spheric nitrogen,  slowly  accumulating  through  the 
ages  from  sundry  sources.  For  the  sources  of 
origin  of  nitrogen  are  more  than  one,  the  two  chief 
sources  being,  first,  the  stores  of  the  primal  sea, 
and  second,  the  play  of  lightning,  tearing  the  ether 
bulla?  with  its  darts,  and  casting  down  the  disrupted 
envelopes,  as  a  loose  contexture  of  fourth  finites.249 

24nPrincipia,  part  III.  chap.  VIII.  15.  Compare  spec- 
trum of  Lightning  identified  hy  Landaur  as  presenting  the 
characteristic  line  of  nitrogen. 


141 


swedenborg's  cosmology. 


Thus  not  only  was  the  primal  ocean  a  great  cosmic 
source  of  nitrogen  ;  hut  each  flash  of  lightning  in 
the  sky  actually  begets  a  new  volume  of  it  into  the 
air.  Indeed  the  soil  itself  is  now  nourished  by  such 
new  heaven-born  particles  caught  on  vapor  bulke 
and  descending  to  the  earth  in  showers,250  as,  pri- 
mally.  at  the  epoch  of  greatest  vegetative  growth, 
it  was  nourished  from  the  depths  of  the  ocean, 
upon  the  bosom  of  which  it  was  afloat. 

Silicon  and  Carbon,  twin  substances,  of  one 
family,  type,  and  origin.  The  first  carbon  created 
iu  the  nascent  world  made  its  appearance  not  as  pure 
separate  elemental  carbon,  but  in  the  form  of  a  com- 
pound,— the  mineral  hydro-carbons  originating  in 
the  deep  sea, — their  constitution  presenting  to  Swe- 
denborg  the  structure-type  characterizing  "oils  and 
spirits,"  namely,  bullae  or  bubbles  consisting  in- 
teriorly of  a  minute  volume  of  ether,  enveloped  and 
enclosed  by  ramental  or  curving  wing-like  frag- 
ments broken  from  the  edges  of  the  primordial 
crystalline  "salts," — like  ramental  fragments  en- 
veloping bulla?  of  water  vapor  apparently  forming 
carbonic  acid.251  Now  there  exists  strong  ground 
to  class  silicon  directly  with  carbon  as  possessing  a 

2r'°Chemistry,  chap.  XIII.  sec.  2.  a  posteriori  (2)  ;  E. 
A.  K.  part.  I.  nos.  75.  76. 

2 5 'Chemistry,  chap.  XIV.  sec.  2.  3. 


142 


GEOLOGY. 


like  structure-type ;  their  place  and  time  of  origin 
being  one,  and  the  production  of  both  taking  place 
by  means  of  the  ramental  particles  of  the  newly 
dissolving  salts ;  silicon  as  well  as  carbon  being  first 
evolved  in  the  nascent  world  not  as  a  pure  element, 
but  in  the  form  of  a  compound — the  colloidal  hy- 
drate of  silicon.  The  chief  distinction  between  the 
primal  carbon  and  the  silicon  compounds  would  be 
that  the  ramental  fragments  appropriated  to  the 
hydrate  of  silicon  were  broken  off  from  the  heavier 
thicker  side  of  the  original  curving  wing-like  ra- 
menta.  the  more  delicate  lighter  edges  being  appro- 
priated to  the  constitution  of  the  hydro-carbon 
bulla?.232 

Silicon  is  one  of  the  most  abundant  chemical  ele- 
ments in  the  earth's  crust,  being  largelv  constitutive 
of  all  rocks  produced  by  aqueo-thermal  metamor- 
phosis of  the  silicious  oozes  and  sediments  originally 
posited  on  the  deep  sea  bottom. — such  as  our  gran- 

252In  Swedenborg's  system  the  chemical  elements  per  se 
were  not  first  generated,  and  then  compounded.  On  the 
contrary,  all  the  chemical  elements  appear  on  the  creative 
scene  first,  in  the  shape  of  compounds.  Their  separation 
and  more  complex  compounding  belong  to  other  agencies, 
— mostly  organic, — and  other  ages.  For  instance,  oxygen 
and  hydrogen  were  first  brought  into  existence  in  their 
compound, — water.  Sodium  and  chlorine  first  appeared  in 
the  world  in  the  form  of  their  compound,  salt,  etc. 


143 


swedenkorg's  cosmology. 


itcs  and  flints.  Silicon  is,  indeed,  a  characteristic 
constituent  both  of  the  greater  portion  of  the  min- 
erals of  sea  origin,  and  of  all  the  vegetative  forms 
which  live  and  grow  in  the  sea,  from  least  to  great- 
est. The  glass  sponges  are  a  lovely  instance  of  the 
latter,  common  to  all  our  museums.  In  itself,  as  a 
chemical  substance,  silicon  has  been  found  to  stand 
in  the  nearest  possible  relation  to  carbon  in  the  peri- 
odic system  ;  carbon  and  silicon  being  the  first  two 
members  of  the  fourth  periodic  family,  silicon  car- 
rying the  greater  atomic  weight.  Their  closeness 
of  constitutive  factor  and  pattern  is  marked  not 
alone  in  likeness  of  chemical  reactions  and  affinities 
apparent  in  laboratory  experiment,  but  in  obvious 
physical  states  and  properties ;  and  in  a  phvsiologi- 
cal  interchangeability  in  sundry  simple  forms  of 
vegetative  use  and  life.  Like  carbon,  silicon  is  easily 
capable  of  existing  in  a  colloidal  or  vitreous  state, — 
gelatine  like,  plastic  and  mutable.  The  colloidal 
constitution  is  characteristic  of  all  the  plastic  ele- 
ments of  organized  bodies.  Hydrate  of  silica,  as 
the  geysers  bring  it  up  from  the  depths  of  the  earth, 
is  first  deposited  as  an  oozy  gelatinous  substance, 
like  a  soft  jelly-glass,  hardening  by  time.  More- 
over mineral  forms  of  silicic  acid,  such  as  flint,  are 
known  to  have  passed  during  the  geologic  ages  of 
their  existence  from  the  vitreous  or  colloidal  into  the 


144 


GEOLOGY. 


crystalline  condition.  In  addition,  carbon  is  directly 
replaceable  bv  silicon  in  tbc  case  of  certain  fungi, 
which  grow  as  well  when  nourished  by  fresh  col- 
loidal silicon  as  by  carbon.253  Moreover,  spiral 
fibre  masses,  Sarcina-like  bodies,  and  fungi,  will 
develop  dc  novo  in  colloidal  silica,  prepared  under 
conditions  which  preclude  the  existence  or  the  en- 
trance of  particles  of  living  matter — "germs"- — to 
initiate  their  growth.254  Such  a  thing  implies  that 
the  very  type  of  molecular  aggregation  marking  the 
vitreous  or  colloidal  stat.\  such  as  characterizes 
both  hydrate  of  silicon  and  the  carbo-hydrates,  must 
itself  per  se  be  physically  an  aggregation  of  least 
"matrices,"'  or  a  mass  of  molecular  bullae,  or  bubble 
cells.  The  envelopes  of  such  bubble-cells  like  most 
impalpable  shells  close  around  and  include  small 
volumes  of  the  ever  present  active  ether,  so  as  to 
form  flexible  closed  bubbles,  capable  of  reacting 
plastically  and  serviceably  to  the  motions  and  im- 
pulsions of  the  life  communicating255  ever  ordinat- 

8S8Bastian's  Beginnings  of  Life.  X ;  Quarterly  Journal 
Micro.  Science,  1868,  pp.  105-108. 

"■•Beginnings  of  Life.  Bastian.  X.  Quarterly  Journal 
Microscopical  Science.  1868.  p.  105-108. 

255S\vedenborg's  definition  of  life  is  unique.  He  defines 
life  as  a  mode  of  motion,  of  vibration  or  tremulation, 
which  can  be  set  up  and  be  maintained  only  by  the  living 
Infinite  God,  and  be  imparted  to  created  organic  forms 


145 


SWEDENBORG  S  COSMOLOGY. 


ing  ether  which  presents  the  Divine  in  Use  or 
Operation.  That  all  substances  in  the  colloidal  or 
vitreous  state  do  actually  possess  such  an  interior 
molecular  arrangement  and  massing  into  grosser, 
bullular  forms,  corresponding  to  those  of  the  fine 
bullular  ether,  (which  ether,  indeed,  probably  forms 
the  whole  nuclear  center  of  the  grosser  bullae),  can 
be  directly  affirmed.  We  deduce  this  from  Swe- 
denborg's  statement  that  the  state  of  vitrification 
itself  consists  in  a  transposition  of  the  particles  of 
the  substance  into  bullae  or  bubbles,  and  the  con- 
junction of  the  same. 2 r'6 

Such  a  bullular  or  foam-like  and  plastic  interior 
constitution  is  characteristic  of  the  oils,  both  of  the 
mineral  oils  and  the  organic  oils,  the  animal  spirits 
and  spirituous  fluids,  (the  life-formative  fluids) 
which  are  as  higher  oils.  Its  general  type  is  illus- 
trated in  chapter  XIV  of  the  Chemistry,  and  further 
defined  in  E.  A.  K.  part  I.  no.  75,  and  it  is  char- 
acteristic of  all  protoplasms. 

Tn  the  Chemistry,  as  we  have  noted,  this  form  is 
given  as  first  originating  in  the  deep  sea,  and  pro- 
duced by  means  of  the  ramental  or  wing-like  frag- 
ments broken  from  the  edges  of  the  fresh  dissolv- 

every  moment  by  and  in  and  through  the  medium  of  the 
foam-like  ethers  or  auras. 
•:56Miscel.  Obser.  part.  II.  on  Vitrification. 


I46 


GEOLOGY. 


ing  salt.  The  form  of  these  ramental  fragments  is 
slightly  curving,  a  sickle-shaped  particle  :  the  concave 
edge  heing  thin  and  keen,  and  the  convex  edge  be- 
ing markedly  thicker.  Swedenborg  notes  that  the 
original  ramental  fragments  have  lines  of  easy  fract- 
ure :  and  that  by  concussion  of  friction  the  thinner, 
lighter  portion  of  the  ramental  scales  is  readily  sep- 
arable from  the  heavier;  and  that  thus  arise  stores 
of  ramental  fragments  of  differing  size  and  weight. 

Now  on  comparing  carbon  with  silicon  as  to  prop- 
erties, uses,  and  localities  of  most  abundant  store, 
the  indications  would  seem  to  be  that  the  ramental 
fragments  of  lighter  weight,  enveloping  about  the 
volumes  of  displaced  ether,  or  of  water  vapor,  con- 
stituted the  lighter  bullular  foams  composing  the 
mineral  hydro-carbons  and  carbonic  acid,  the  bub- 
bles of  which,  being  light,  ascended  easily  from  the 
profound  depths  of  the  sea  to  its  very  surface,  along 
with  the  ammonia  compounds,  there  to  lend  their 
foam  mass,  palpitant  in  the  warm  sun's  heat  to  form 
the  body  of  the  endlessly  springing  vegetable  forms, 
the  vast  preserved  store  of  which  constitutes  the  car- 
boniferous strata,  the  store  houses  of  the  primal 
superabundance  of  carbon  for  use  of  future  ages. 
The  heavier  ramental  fragments  derived  from  the 
same  original  ramenta.  but  by  reason  of  weight  not 
so  apt  to  rise  lightly  to  the  surface  of  the  sea,  form- 


147 


SVVEDENBORG  S  COSMOLOGY. 


cd  with  displaced  ether  bubbles  bulla;  of  like  type 
as  the  hydro-carbons.  All  such  bullae,  loaded  with 
weightier  ramental  fragments,  probably  never  were 
able  to  rise  far  out  of  the  zone  of  their  original 
creation,  but  there  in  those  sea  depths  came  to 
analogous  uses  as  the  colloidal  carbons.  For  what 
we  term  silicon,  as  has  been  said,  stands  in  the  near- 
est relation  to  carbon  of  any  known  substance.  Its 
chemical  affinities,  relations,  values,  parallel  those 
of  carbon,  only  it  is  of  greater  atomic  weight.  Like 
carbon  it  is  distinguished  in  its  aptitude,  its  ten- 
dency, to  form  colloidal  or  jelly-like  solutions  and 
combinations.  It  is  interchangeable  with  carbon  in 
the  growth  of  certain  fungi,  and  sub-vital  organized 
growths  spring  dc  novo  in  its  fresh  solutions. 
Moreover,  it  is  present  almost  as  universally  and 
characteristically  in  submarine  vegetation  and 
microscopic  and  low  forms  of  life  as  carbon  alone 
is  with  relation  to  sub-aerial  vegetation.  It  is  in- 
deed so  abundant  in  many  rock  strata,  known  to 
have  been  primarily  posited  as  sediments  on  the 
deep  ocean  bed,  that  Le  Conte  speaks  of  whole  vast 
classes  of  minerals  as  for  the  most  part  existing  in 
a  sort  of  magma  of  the  simple  fused  alkaline  sili- 
cates. This  would  be  what  would  naturally  follow 
if  the  original  ramental  fragments  abundant  in  the 
primal  sea  were  rebroken  into  a  lighter  and  heavier 


148 


GEOLOGY. 


portion,  and  the  lighter  fragments  formed  bnlke 
able  easily  to  rise  to  the  surface  and  found  stored 
for  the  most  part  in  the  carbonaceous  remains  of 
vegetative  life  known  to  be  of  sub-aerial  growth. 
But  the  bulla?  formed  from  the  heavier  ramental 
particles  remained  beneath  the  surface  of  the  water, 
and  are  found  stored  in  the  vegetative  and  other 
forms  of  sub-aqueous  life.  Moreover,  silica  would 
be  almost  invariably  characteristic  of  strata  known 
to  have  been  originally  posited  in  the  bed  of  the  sea. 

Now  we  know  from  Swedenborg  that  the  first 
evolution  of  carbon  on  the  earth  must  have  been  in 
the  compound  form  of  the  mineral  hydro-carbons, 
— and  perhaps  carbonic  acid  also — arising  from  the 
salt  beds  in  the  deeps  of  the  primeval  sea.  There 
certainly  seems  presumptive  evidence  also,  from  a 
connection  of  Swedenborg's  principles  with  the  vari- 
ous facts  cited  relative  to  silicon,  to  conclude  that 
the  known  evolution  of  carbon  gives  us  a  clue  also 
to  the  evolution  of  silicon,  its  nearest  chemical  rela- 
tive. Silicon  would  seem,  therefore,  to  have  been 
first  evolved  on  earth  in  its  hydrate  compound,  in 
the  depths  of  the  sea .  at  the  same  time  that  primal 
carbon  compounds  were  in  formation.  The  heavier 
edges  of  the  ramental  fragments  broken  from  the 
primal  salts  bear  the  same  relation  in  their  constitu- 
tion to  the  primal  silicon  compounds,  that  the  lighter 


149 


swedenborg's  cosmology. 

ramental  fragments  do  in  the  constitution  of  the 
allied  carbon  compounds ;  and  the  place  of  their 
greatest  abundance  and  use  is,  naturally,  in  the 
water  near  the  place  of  their  origination,  as  be- 
fitted their  heavy  inaptitude  to  rise ;  while  the  lighter 
weighted  carbon-compound  rose  to  a  place  of  uses 
where  sea  and  air  joined. 

Evolution  of  the  Halogens  and  the  Alka- 
line and  Earthy  Metals.  Swedenborg's  inter- 
pretation OE  THE  SUCCESSION  OF  EARLY  GEOLOGI- 
CAL Strata.  The  evolution  of  the  halogens  and  of 
the  alkaline  metals  has  already  been  given  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  formation  of  the  rock  salts  constituting 
the  compressed  crystalline  floor  of  the  primal  sea. 
Chlorine,  Bromine,  Iodine,  all  the  halogen  family, 
made  their  advent  among  the  few  substances  of  the 
nascent  world,  united  in  compounds  with  the  alkaline 
and  allied  metals,  in  that  great  basic  formation  of  the 
salt  layers  of  the  depths  of  the  sweet  water  sea.  As 
the  salt  dissolved  in  the  water  above,  and  the  sea 
grew  salt,  the  halogens  and  alkaline  metals  were  dis- 
sociated, and  the  metals,  potassium,  sodium,  calcium, 
set  free,  to  furnish  necessary  material  not  only  for 
the  sub-vital  growths  of  corals,  but  for  the  shells  of 
lowest,  most  minute  forms  of  life,  such  as  exist  to- 
day in  the  deep  sea  ooze ;  and,  in  the  very  early  ages 
of  geologic  record,  these  accumulated  on  the  floor 


50 


GEOLOGY. 


of  the  ocean  in  such  abundance  that  they  prepared 
material  for  the  present  strata  of  chalk,  sometimes  a 
thousand  feet  thick ;  while  the  silicious  ooze  has  left 
remains  in  layers  of  rock,  even  more  abundant. 

So  far  as  the  history  has  gone,  we  have  followed 
the  making  of  the  primal  unsalted  sea.  and  the 
sequent  evolution  of  the  halogens  and  the  alkaline 
metals,  in  the  form  of  their  compounds  or  salts, 
framed  in  the  depths  of  the  sea  from  the  spherical 
water  particles.  In  this  formation  the  metallic 
hydrogen  of  the  water  particle  was  compressed  and 
cast  from  the  spherical  into  the  cubic  form,  char- 
acterizing the  alkaline  metals,  as  sodium,  potas- 
sium, etc.,  and  the  spherical  oxygen  crust  of  the 
water  particles  was  pressed  and  cast  into  the  mould 
of  the  triangular  particles  of  the  acid  halogens ;  and 
both,  (by  aid  of  the  uncrushed  particles  of  the 
water  of  crystallization  present),  were  fitted  to- 
gether on  the  crystalline  model.  Of  such  units  the 
great  crystalline  layer  of  rock  salt  was  framed  as 
the  floor  of  the  sea. 

The  second  epoch,  according  to  Swedenborg's 
system  of  substance  and  world  making,  was  usher- 
ed in  with  the  beginning  of  the  solution  of  the  rock 
salt  layer  in  the  sea.  In  the  process  of  this  solu- 
tion, the  units  of  the  alkaline  metals  and  of  the 
halogens  which  compounded  the  salt,  were  dis- 

151 


swedenborg's  cosmology. 


sociated  and  set  free  for  new  combinations  and  ser- 
vices. The  fresh  ramental  fragments, — thin  wing- 
like, curving  scales — were  broken  from  the  edges 
of  the  angular  forms  built  into  the  crystalline  salt, 
and,  later,  were  themselves  broken.  The  third 
ether,  displaced  from  the  interstices  of  the  round 
water  particles  by  the  particles  of  the  dissolving 
salt,  ascended  through  the  sea ;  and  around  it  as  it 
arose,  the  ramental  particles  were  attracted,  gather- 
ed and  grouped.  The  lighter  ramental  particles 
were  lightly  borne  by  the  streams  of  ascending 
ether  to  the  upper  air,  together  with  the  lighter  tri- 
angular fragments  broken  off ;  and  through  all  this 
age  we  may  imagine  that  the  sea  bubbled  from  its 
very  depths  with  the  rising  bulla?  of  the  mineral 
hydro-carbons  and  carbonic  acid  intermingled  with 
the  simplest  ammonical  compounds.  On  the  warm 
surface  of  the  sea  this  rising  material  served  life  as 
a  mother  or  matrix  stuff ;  and  of  this  first  union  of 
the  ether  and  the  inert  particles  shaped  in  the  sea, 
the  first  vegetative  protoplasms  took  form  as  the 
beginnings  of  a  floating  land,  and  stores  of  carbon. 
The  heavier  ramental  particles  left  behind,  clinging 
to  and  gathering  around  the  like  ether  bubbles, 
weighted  and  detained  them  in  the  volume  of  the 
sea  ;  and  there  they  also  came  to  their  use,  as  coadju- 
tors of  the  carbons,  in  serving  the  Infinite  Life  for  a 


152 


GEOLOGY. 


mother  matrix  and  body  of  simple  forms  of  vegeta- 
tive and  obscure  life;  and  there  in  the  sea  depths 
the  remains  of  such  life  were  chiefly  stored,  to  frame 
the  strata  of  our  rock-bound  coasts. 

This  epoch  was  long.  Its  accumulations  were  on 
an  immense  scale.  Swedenborg  says  the  floating 
continents  framed  of  pure  vegetation,  formed  on  the 
surface  of  the  primal  sea.  attained  to  the  thickness 
of  a  mile  and  formed  an  immense  crust  of  vegeta- 
tion and  the  debris  of  vegetative  growth  almost 
compassing  the  circuit  of  the  world-enveloping 
sea.237  The  marine  vegetation  below  the  floating 
crust,  and  the  deposits  of  silicious  and  calcareous 
ooze  accumulating  from  the  remains  of  the  minutest 
vegetative  and  animate  creatures  toward  the  bottom 
of  the  sea,  must  have  been  of  commensurate  thick- 
ness ;  to  say  nothing  of  the  s ediment  silting  down 
from  the  upper  floating  lands. 

One  thing  in  Swedenborg*s  system  of  chemical 
and  geological  evolution  is  of  especial  note  just 
here.  He  reads  the  succession  of  early  geological 
strata  not  as  implying  successive  ages  of  formation, 
but  an  implying  layers  of  coincident  formation  or 
preparation,  at  different  depths  in  the  ocean  ;  that 
is,  he  reads  the  geological  record  in  leaves,  from 
the  bottom  of  the  ocean  up.    Thus  according  to  his 

:z~ Preface  to  the  Treatise  on  Copper,  par.  7. 


153 


swedenborg's  cosmology. 


theory,  the  growth  of  the  great  floating  islands  of 
vegetation  of  the  carboniferous  age,  would  be  go- 
ing on  at  the  top  of  the  sea,  coincidently  with  the 
formation  of  the  submarine  vegetation  lower  down 
and  the  deposition  of  the  strata  of  sediment  and  the 
calcareous  and  silicious  oozes  in  the  depths  of  the 
sea.  Thus,  according  to  him,  one  and  the  same  age 
would  cover  the  formation  and  simultaneous  ex- 
istence of  all  these  layers.  And  the  vegetative  crust 
over  the  sea,  the  submarine  vegetative  world,  the 
lower  zones  of  the  deep  sediments  and  calcareous 
oozes,  collecting  just  above  the  basic  dissolving  thin- 
ning sheet  of  rock  salt,  flooring  the  sea,  would,  all, 
be  the  offspring  of  one  epoch. 

The  Sub-saline  layer,  and  its  connection 
with  the  upheaval  of  mountains,  the  action 
of  volcanoes,  and  the  formation  of  magnetic 
ores.  Hitherto  we  have  treated  of  the  formation  of 
the  several  strata  of  organizing  life,  and  the  evolu- 
tion of  new  substances  taking  place  above  the  basic 
rock  salt  layer.  Of  the  primal  formation  of  that 
layer  we  treated  somewhat  fully  in  a  previous 
chapter. 

But  there  is  one  stratum,  one  layer,  which  we 
have  not  yet  mentioned,  although  it  is  of  the  great- 
est importance.  It  figures  as  one  of  the  two  agen- 
cies which  combine  in  the  upheaval  of  mountain 


154 


GEOLOGY. 


chains,  in  the  elevation  of  lands  and  of  islands.  Its 
substance  forms  the  core  of  mountain  chains.  It 
furnishes  part  of  the  inner  baking  heat  which  meta- 
morphoses the  plastic  sediment  of  the  ocean  bed, 
when  elevated  into  mountain  cones, — into  the  stuff 
of  our  more  refractory  rocks.  In  it  is  the  spring  of 
all  volcanic  rise  and  overflow  ;  and  among  condi- 
tions existent  in  it  alone,  the  magnetic  ores  take 
their  original  shaping. 

All  these  several  and  great  uses  it  enters  into,  and 
is  an  indispensable  part  and  party  to.  Yet  it  con- 
stitutes probably  a  layer  of  no  great  thickness  rela- 
tively to  the  deep  rock  salt  stratum  as  originally 
formed  above  it.  It  is  the  sub-saline  layer,  lying  as 
an  intermediate  layer  in  unstable  equilibrium,  semi- 
liquid,  held  between  the  firm  crystalline  strata  which 
are  vaulting  above  it  on  the  one  hand,  and  on  the 
other  the  inner  rigid,  round  core  of  the  globe  itself 
which  is  the  most  dense  solid  substance  created, 
wound  of  ordered  lines  of  fourth  finites :  cold  and 
dark  and  firm  forever. 

The  formation  of  this  sub-saline  layer  was  co- 
eval with  the  formation  of  the  rock  salt  layer  itself. 
In  fact,  the  lowermost  portions  of  the  rock  salt 
stratum  pass  into  it  by  imperceptible  graduations ;  as 
the  pressure  becomes  so  great  the  delicate  crystalline 
units  themselves  are  disintegrated  or  imperfectly 


155 


swedenborg's  cosmology. 


formed.  But  although  it  was  brought  into  exist- 
tence  so  early  in  the  series  of  world  evolution,  the 
potencies  of  this  intermediate  stratum  waited  to^ 
come  to  their  realization  and  unlocking  in  use,  until 
that  far  later  world-time  arrived  when  the  enorm- 
ous islands  of  floating  vegetation  had  become  from 
the  accumulation  of  ages  so  dense  that  their  mile- 
deep  crust  was  grown  too  thick  and  heavy  to  sustain 
itself  longer  afloat  upon  the  surface  of  the  sea ;  and 
vast  areas  of  that  vegetative  crust,  continent  wide, 
broke  off  here  and  there,  and  settled  down ;  at  first 
little  by  little  and  slowly,  and  then  swiftly  and  with 
heavy  vacuum  rush,  to  the  floor  of  the  sea.  Then 
the  immense  body  of  ocean  water  displaced,  swirled 
upward,  in  vast  wave,  and  poured  itself  in  powerful 
cataract  current  over  the  submerging  land,  till 
equilibrium  was  restored  and  a  peaceful  sea.  And 
the  old  story  began  again,  until  some  new  collapse 
and  catastrophe  occurred  unlocking  mighty  agencies. 

The  grounds  of  our  certainty  as  to  the  existence 
of  a  sub-saline  stratum,  pasty  and  unstable,  lying 
between  the  crystalline  floor  of  the  sea  and  the 
central  rigid  ball  of  the  globe,  are  very  simple. 
The  condition  of  the  formation  of  crystalline  or  rock 
salt  is.  that  not  all  the  water  particles  shall  be 
crushed  into  the  new  angular  forms,  but  only  a  cer- 
tain  proportion  of   them.    The  uninjured  water 

156 


GEOLOGY. 


molecules  of  a  certain  amount  of  water  of  crystali- 
zation  are  necessary  for  crystalline  formation.  In 
fact,  they  were  necessary  for  the  shaping  of  the 
very  angular  particles  of  the  salt,  since  those  angular 
particles  were  moulded  to  the  interstices  of  the  water 
particles. 

Now  this  implies  a  nice  adjustment  of  the  press- 
ure to  the  work  to  be  done.  With  too  little  press- 
ure, salt  would  not  be  produced  at  all.  With  too 
much  pressure  its  delicate  crystalline  shapes  would 
equally  fail  to  be  produced.  In  the  latter  case  there 
would  ensue — not  the  new  form  of  delicate  an- 
gular masses,  finer  than  any  microscope  can  hope 
to  see, — beautiful  and  without  break  or  crushing, 
modelled  into  the  interstices  of  the  uninjured  round 
molecules  of  the  water  of  crystalization,  by  which 
everywhere  they  were  at  once  moulded  into  and  sus- 
tained in  their  new  shape, — but  there  would  ensue  a 
crushing  disintegration  of  all  the  water  particles, 
and  by  consequence  the  angular  forms  of  the  salts 
would  fail  to  be  formed :  and  the  result  would  be 
only  a  pasty,  more  or  less  inchoate  mass  of  the 
various  grades  of  simple  component  unites.  Thus 
the  rock-salt  layer  with  its  perfect  crystallization 
could  come  to  birth  only  in  that  particular  lower 
zone  of  the  ocean  depths  where  there  existed  an 
equilibrium  between  the  pressures  and  the  conserva- 


57 


swedenborg's  COSMOLOGY. 


tion  of  the  percentage  of  intermingled  water  mole- 
cules necessary  as  moulds  for  the  new  and  angular 
forms.  Now.  in  the  lowermost  ocean  deeps,  when 
the  universal  sea  rested  immediately  upon  the  rigid 
planetary  core  of  the  grosser  metallic  finites,  at  a 
depth  so  great  that  the  bullae  of  the  interfluent  third 
ether258  were  no  longer  present.259  but  the  second 
or  magnetic  aura,  and  the  primal  aura,  alone  could 
be  present  and  ordinative,  then,  Swedenborg  says, 
the  very  water  particles  and  the  forms  as  yet  created 
were  crushed  down  and  disintegrated  even  to  the 
point  of  a  disintegration  of  the  larger  component 
finites — or  corpuscles — into  their  own  finer  con- 
stituents ;2G0  from  which  would  result  a  layer  pre- 
senting a  sort  of  pasty  mass  of  intermingled  finite.-*, 
crushed  from  the  materia  of  the  superincumbent 
sea,  just  around  the  original  rigid,  resistant  core  of 
the  planet. 

Such  a  result  evidently  is  consequent  on  a  degree 
of  pressure  greater  than  that  which  gives  rise  to  the 
crystalline  layer  of  salt  formed  at  the  bottom  of  the 
primal  shoreless  sea,  the  solution  of  which  in  the 
water  above,  gives  rise  to  the  ascending  bubbles  of 

258Principia.  part.  III.  chap.  IX.  (2).  (3).  (4). 
259Chemistry.  chap.  X.  sec.  1.  2. 
:60Chemistry.  chap.  X.  sec.  2.  4. 


158 


GEOLOGY. 


displaced  ether  as  described."0'1  Its  site  is  therefore 
lower  or  nearer  to  the  earth's  center  than  the  layer 
of  rock  salt.  Indeed  the  crystalline  layer  of  the 
original  salt  bed,  flooring  the  sea,  where  it  abuts  on 
the  rigid  earth  core,  may  be  assumed  to  lose  its  per- 
fect firm  crystalline  type  and  gradually  merge  into 
the  postulated  inchoate  semifluent  mass  of  pure 
finites ;  and  is  only  kept  from  passing  out  of  its 
pasty  relatively  cold  state,  and  fusing  and  flowing 
and  running  into  the  fiery  incandescent  state,  by 
reason  of  the  strict  limits  into  which  it  is  coerced 
by  the  pressure  above  it,  and  the  resistance  below. 

Thus  under  the  solid  floor  of  the  primal  ocean 
with  its  great  rock  salt  layer,  and  its  weight  of 
heaping  sediments  and  swarming  life — between  that 
solid  floor  and  the  rigid  metallic  core  of  the  globe, 
itself  compressed  from  the  homogeneous  planetary 
mass  into  a  solidly  wound  ball  of  threads  of  fourth 
finites  alone, — we  may  assume  an  intermediate 
pasty  or  semifluid  layer  consisting  of  heterogene- 
ous finites  of  various  degrees,  originally  compressed 
from  the  lowermost  layers  of  the  water  of  the  sea 
and  from  the  salt  itself.  Between  the  core  of  the 
earth,  which  is  a  rigid  solid  globe,  and  the  floor 

'■'"Chemistry,  chap.  XI.  sec.  5.  par.  2.  (2).  Worship 
and  Love  of  God.  chap.  I.  no.  14 


iS9 


SWEDE NBORG  S  COSMOLOGY. 


of  the  ocean  with  its  strata  of  crystalline  salt  and 
the  sedimentary  strata  of  the  ages,  there  existed 
from  the  first  and  exists  now,  a  fluent  or  semifluent 
inchoate  layer  of  great  instability,  held  down  and 
together  by  the  pressures  and  the  resistances  on 
either  side : — but  on  the  least  relief  of  pressure 
liable  to  instant  fusion,  and  the  rise  of  temperature 
to  incandescence. 

This  layer  is  the  source  of  the  energy  of  seismic 
disturbance ;  it  is  the  spring  of  volcanic  overflow ; 
and  its  liability  to  fusion  with  rise  of  temperature 
on  the  least  relief  or  variation  of  the  coercing  press- 
ures was  and  is  one  of  the  two  agencies  concerned  in 
all  upheavals  of  land  or  ocean  bottom,  the  eleva- 
tion of  mountain  chains,  and  the  sudden  appearance, 
temporary  or  permanent,  of  islands  in  the  sea. 

The  first  mountain  upheaval  of  all,  the  very  first 
lift  of  the  floor  of  the  sea  with  all  its  strata  upon  it 
into  great  cone-like  ridges,  took  place  in  swift 
sequence  upon  the  subsidence  of  the  first  great  area 
of  the  upper  floating  vegetative  crust  to  the  floor  of 
the  sea.  Then  the  weight  of  that  crust  was  local- 
ized upon  the  portion  of  sea  floor  upon  which  it 
rested ;  and  coincidently  the  water  mass  it  dis- 
placed seeking  place  and  sucked  upward  by  the 
vacuum  the  falling  mass  created,  flowed  in  great 
upward  currents,  rising  all  about  the  edges  of  the 


1 60 


GEOLOGV. 


fallen  continent, — relatively  lessening  the  pressure 
there — while  the  weight  of  the  subsided  mass  in- 
creased the  pressure  on  the  sea  floor  over  the  area 
upon  which  it  rested.  The  sea  floor  yielded  and  bent 
down  under  the  weight  of  the  broad  stratum  of  the 
fallen  upper  crust,  and  at  the  same  moment  all 
around  the  borders  of  the  depressed  area,  it  lifted 
and  waved  upward.  To  this  relative  fluctuation  of 
pressure  above  it,  the  potencies  of  the  semifluent 
layer  lying  between  the  salt  bed  and  the  rigid  core 
of  the  globe  instantly  responded,  and  where  the 
pressure  was  momentarily  lessened,  there  it  fused, 
flowed,  glowed,  and  upheaved  the  ocean  bed  with 
all  its  strata  on  it,  into  a  vast  rim  borderng  the 
submerged  area,  and  rising  higher  and  higher  until 
a  new  equilibrium  of  pressure  was  reached.  This 
was  the  formation  of  the  first  mountain  chain,  and 
this  is  why  mountain  ranges  border  continents,  for 
continents  generally  consist  of  interior  basins  with 
coast  chain  rims. 

After  a  new  equilibrium  of  pressure  and  forces 
had  ceased,  the  fused  mass  of  the  pasty  subsaline 
layer,  although  it  had  no  more  spring  and  freedom 
to  rise  higher,  was  able  to  hold  its  first  rise,  and 
cooled,  solidified,  crystallized  as  it  stood,  the  original 
mass  being  partly  sublimed,  partly  fused,  in  its  up- 
heaval, as  the  gaseous  and  glassy  inclusions  show. 


161 


swedenborg's  cosmology. 

This  cooled  mass  is  the  igneous  granite  of  which 
the  cores  of  all  mountain  ranges  consist. 

The  fiery  heat  of  that  great  release  and  fusion 
acted  upon  the  partially  plastic  strata  of  the  ocean 
bed  upheaved  with  the  rise  of  the  subsaline  layer 
and  lying  around  and  about  it,  as  the  heat  of  the 
brick  kiln  acts  on  the  vault  of  piled  brick  within 
which  it  glows.  The  nearest  layers  are  fused;  all 
according  to  their  relative  distance,  are  hardened, 
altered,  baked.  Thus  also  the  sedimentary  strata 
nearest  the  igneous  rock  were  literally  fused,  the 
silicious  into  the  metamorphic  granite,  with  their 
evidence  of  sedimentary  origin  and  crystallization 
from  an  aqueous-thermal  state,  as  their  liquid  in- 
clusions of  carbonic  acid  testify,262  while  the  chalks 
changed  into  marble.  Moreover,  all  through  the 
metamorphic  strata,  carboniferous  remains  and  the 
mineral  oils  detained  still  in  the  deep  sea  sediment, 
tended,  as  the  mass  reached  fusion  heats,  to  be  sub- 
limated and  precipitated,  as  veins  of  pure  graphite, 
characteristic  of  such  rock. 

Again,  the  highly  metamorphic  rocks,  and  the 

202Le  Conte  Principles  of  Geology,  p.  233.  The  meta- 
morphic granites  the  last  term  of  metamorphosis  of  highly 
silicious  sediments  reduced  to  aqueo-igneous  pastyness. 
Svvedenborg.  Mies.  Obs.  p.  14.  Granite,  from  sedimen- 
tary strata,  originating  at  the  bottom  of  the  diluvian  ocean. 

162 


GEOLOGW 


igneous  rock  masses  of  the  mountain  cores,  as  welt 
as  in  a  more  marked  degree  the  output  of  volcanoes, 
are  characterized  by  the  presence  of  the  magnetic 
ores.  For  only  under  such  conditions  and  in  such 
localities  as  preclude  the  presence  of  the  third  or 
electric  ether,  while  admitting  the  free  entrance  of 
the  second  or  magnetic  aura  alone,263  can  the  mag- 
netic ores  or  mineral  be  formed  and  brought  into 
existence,  as  in  the  only  matrix  appropriate  to  the 
production  of  their  peculiar  molecular  constitution. 
For  the  substance  of  all  hard  bodies  is  textured  of 
little  bodies, — molecules  or  least  units, — ''diversely 
configurated,  as  also  diversely  perforated"  with 
pores  large  or  pores  small  according  to  the  nature 
of  the  composition.  Only  such  little  bodies  or  forms- 
are  magnetic,  as,  however  configurated,  are  furn-sh- 
ed  with  pores  or  meatuses  so  subtle  as  to  be  per- 
meable by  the  magnetic  elementary  or  the  second 
aura,  but  not  by  the  ether,  so  that  the  second  aura 
alone  is  able  to  pass  through  their  little  fixed  pores 
and  openings  as  blood  through  a  vein.  With  that 
flow  established,  the  fine  tide  of  the  second  aura  is 
able  to  return  outside  and  perfect  a  true  vortex. 
Such  are  the  least  forms  of  molecules  of  all  mag- 

263The  primal  or  celestial  aura  is  of  course  present  every- 
where, and  livingly  contains,  orders  and  shapes  all  things- 
that  are. 


163 


swedenborg's  cosmology. 

netic  minerals  and  of  iron.  Moreover,  masses  of 
such  bodies  as  are  magnetic  are  surrounded  by  a 
cloud  or  molecular  sphere  of  free  corpuscles  of  pre- 
cisely the  same  nature,  each  one  the  center  of  a 
least  magnetic  vortex,  the  flow  of  which  passes  di- 
rectly through  the  channels  of  its  minute  interior  per- 
forations ;  the  latter  were  indeed  formed  and  kept 
open  by  the  flux  and  reflux  of  that  same  element, 
when  its  constitutive  molecular  system  was  laid  for 
it  in  the  deep  womb  of  the  earth.204  To  these  mole- 
cular vortices  and  their  mutual  colligation  are  due 
the  lines  of  physical  force  existing  around  a  mag- 
net, and  constituting  its  magnetic  force. 

Thus  it  is  sufficiently  obvious  that  the  purely 
magnetic  ores  can  originate,  and  have  their  distinct- 
ive molecular  constitution  formed  only  under  cir- 
cumstances and  in  a  situation  where  the  presence  of 
the  third  ether  is  precluded;  and  the  delicate  intra- 
molecular system  of  pores  characterizing  the  metal 
is  originally  ordinated  in  the  presence  and  under  the 
action  alone  of  the  immensely  more  fine  and  high 
magnetic  or  second  aura. 

Another  thing  is  of  interest  here.  The  original 
cone-like  upheavals  of  the  ocean  floor  lose  their 

2C4Principia.  part.  II,  chap.  I.  n.  10.  15;  part.  III.  chap. 

V.  nos.  4.  16.  21. 


164 


GEOLOGV. 


pristine  height ;  and  that  not  necessarily  by  sub- 
sidence of  their  igneo-fluent  core,  nor  by  exterior 
erosive  or  disintegrative  agencies,  aqueous  or  sub- 
aerial,  although  the  latter  may  add  themselves,  and, 
in  time,  finish  up  and  perfect  what  the  main  agency 
does  with  comparative  rapidity  and  at  once.  The 
sedimentary  strata  of  the  ocean  floor — at  the  time 
of  their  first  upheaval,  and  especially  in  the  primal 
period  of  the  first  upheavals  that  ever  occur, — al- 
though compacted,  are  themselves  plastic  to  a  very 
considerable  extent.  They  cannot  be  otherwise. 
Such  strata  if  thrust  up  from  below  into  a  great 
peak-like  cone  by  an  agent  extraneous  to  them- 
selves, will  begin,  as  it  were,  to  slowly  slide  down 
hill,  and  subside  and  settle  down  on  themselves ; 
each  stratum  thus  widening  and  spreading  out,  at 
the  expense  of  the  height  of  the  cone.  This  process 
will  continue,  until  arrested  by  the  hardening  and 
metamorphic  alteration  of  substance  produced  by 
hill,  and  subside  and  settle  down  on  themselves; 
by  this  lateral  slip, — combined  with  the  heat  con- 
veyed into  them  from  the  igneous  core.205  This  at 
once  accounts  for  the  fact  that  strata  composing 
mountains  are  always  thicker  than  the  same  strata 
as  they  lie  out  over  the  plain  of  the  general  conti- 

265Le  Conte.  Geology,  pp.  231-232. 


165 


swedenborg's  cosmology. 


nent.2G0  and  obviates  any  necessity  of  presuming  the 
endless  geologic  ages,  necessary  to  account  by  known 
sub-aerial  agencies  for  the  present  denudation  or 
wearing  of  peaks,  as  high  as  strata  of  such  original 
thickness  would  imply.  It  also  accounts  for  the  fact 
that  the  younger  or  later  mountains  are  the  higher 
and  still  rising;  while  earlier  mountains  as  rep- 
resenting upheavals  of  the  original  more  plastic  bed 
of  the  sea,  are  the  lower  and  apparently  the  most 
lowered  and  denuded ;  since  the  more  plastic  the 
state  of  the  ocean  floor  at  its  uplifting,  the  greater 
and  the  faster  would  be  its  native  slip  and  subsi- 
dence ;  thus  the  greater  the  spreading  out  and  thick- 
ening of  strata  thus  produced  at  the  expense  of  their 
first  height,  the  greater  the  crumbling  of  the  strata, 
and  the  greater  the  heat  evolved  by  the  sideways 
slip  and  sideways  crushing  of  the  mass,  with  con- 
sequent metamorphic  result.  All  these  points 
characterize  the  strata  of  the  so-called  Archaean 
Era. 

Diluvial  cause  of  what  is  miscalled  Glacial 
Action  and  Glacial  Drift.  When  any  portion  of 
the  mile-thick  floating  crust  of  the  primal  sea  settled 
to  the  sea  floor,  and  the  series  of  events  we  have  oiit- 

26fiThis  difference  is  sometimes  from  40,000  in  a  moun- 
tain range  to  4,000  over  the  levels  of  the  adjacent  conti- 
nent. 

166 


GEOLOGV. 


outlined  followed,  (t  c,  an  uprush  of  the  displaced 
water  with  a  coincident  upheaval  of  the  ocean  bed  all 
around  the  border  of  the  subsiding  continent),  wc 
have  tremendous  agencies  set  afloat,  in  the  mere 
action  of  the  water. 

In  the  first  place,  the  waves  of  gravity  initiated 
at  any  fluctuant  drop  and  lift  of  the  ocean  floor,  are 
great  enough  to  drag  bottom  even  in  deep  sea,  and 
travel  with  a  known  velocity  of  from  370  to  450 
miles  per  hour.'-07  That  waves  of  such  type  would 
occur,  with  every  such  incident  in  cosmic  history,  is 
apparent.  There  is  also  to  be  reckoned  the  enorm- 
ous speeding  swirl  of  the  ocean  currents,  swinging 
in  over  the  swiftly  submerging  lands.  And  with 
both  agencies  we  can  figure  on  the  law  that  the 
weight  of  the  fragments  a  current  can  carry  varies 
as  the  sixth  power  of  the  velocity.263 

Thus  we  can  estimate  the  enormous  waves  and 
currents  of  the  sea.  set  up  at  every  greater  subsi- 
dence of  portions  of  the  floating  upper  crust ;  their 
violence,  their  power  to  tear  off  even  mountains  and 
slide  them  along  over  the  passing  bed  of  their 
irresistible  flow,  boring  and  graving  the  strata  be- 
neath in  correspondent  channels  and  flirtings  as  if 

2r,7Le  Conte.  Geology,  p.  130-132. 
268Le  Conte.  Geology,  p.  20. 


167 


SWEDEN BORG'S  COSMOLOGY. 


they  carried  graving  tools ;  while  lesser  rocks,  borne 
from  their  far  native  place,  as  sediments  and  finest 
pebbles  are  borne  by  quieter,  slower  streams,  were 
posited  in  heaps  and  drifts,  along  their  flow.  The 
piles  of  such  remains  of  successive  diluvial  disturb- 
ances, appear  as  the  scattered  rock  drift  of  our 
lands  to-day.269 

Metals  and  Metallic  Ores,  produced  through 
the  impregnation  or  infilling  of  forms  already 
created,  by  free  metallic  finites.  relation 
of  this  to  the  appearance  of  metallic  prop- 
erties in  the  heavier  members  of  all  fami- 
lies of  the  periodic  system  of  chemical  ele- 
MENTS. In  addition  to  the  creation  of  the  lighter 
alkaline  metals  in  the  salt  of  the  sea,  and  the 
formation  of  the  heavier  magnetic  metals,  chiefly 
in  and  around  mountains  where  the  third  ether  is 
barred  out  and  the  igneous  and  metamorphic  traits 
are  most  marked,  there  occurred  a  later,  very  wide- 

2G0Preface  to  Treatise  on  Copper,  par.  5  to  7.  Chem- 
istry, chap.  I.  On  Primeval  Ocean.  Misc.  Obs.  part.  I. 
pages  5  to  9  inclusive,  p.  10.  sec.  I.  p.  156.  Appendix. — On 
the  waters  of  the  Deluge  and  their  action.  Compare  with 
the  above  Howorth's  work  "The  Glacial  Nightmare,"  in 
which  Swedenborg  is  credited  as  the  first  man  who  taught 
the  diluvial  origin  of  drift ;  a  teaching  which  Howorth 
competently  endorses. 


168 


GEOLOGV. 


spread  infiltration  and  interpenetration  of  free 
metallic  particles  or  primitives  into  the  very  cor- 
puscles of  forms  already  created.  Thus  three 
geometrical  types  of  forms  \( rendered  as  it  were 
metallized,  more  inert,  and  heavier),  resulted  from 
this  action  in  the  course  of  time. 

If  by  an  accession  of  free  third  finites,  the  fifth 
finites  composing  the  envelope  of  the  water  par- 
ticle were  entered.,  and  as  it  were  infilled  and  fixed, 
then  would  result  a  globular  metallic  form,  called  the 
mercurial  globule,270  and  also  the  metallic  oil  glob- 
ule. 

A  comparison  with  Principia,  part  III.  chap. 
VIII,  (where  it  is  noted  that  the  third  finites,  free 
and  active,  cannot  be  in  the  same  space  as  fifth 
finites,  without  disturbing  their  motion  and  so  inter- 
penetrating them  as  to  cause  them  to  become  non- 
active  ;  nor  the  second  finite,  free  and  active,  with 
the  fourth),  suggests  the  condition  of  the  fifth 
finites  composing  the  envelope  of  the  water  parti- 
cles, when  interpenetrated  and  infilled  by  an  acces- 
sion of  third  Unites  free  and  active.  In  such  an  im- 
pregnation and  infilling  of  the  fifth  finites  as  pro- 
duces the  round  metallic  particle  called  the  mer- 
curial globule,  it  is  evident  that  the  water  particle 
becomes  transformed,  and  the  fifth  finites  heavier 

"oChemistry.  chap.  XXV.  133-138. 

169 


swedenborg's  cosmology. 

and  more  inert.  A  like  infiltration  or  impregnation 
of  the  angular  salt  particles  takes  place, — fifth 
finites  of  salt  particle  being  infilled  by  free  third 
finites,  and  the  fourth  finites  being  infilled  by  second 
finites.271  In  the  case  of  the  cubic  particle, — the 
alkaline  metal, — of  the  salt,  this  apparently  produces 
the  heavier  members  of  the  alkaline  and  earthy  metal 
family ;  all  more  inert,  of  greater  atomic  weight,  and 
of  physical  characteristics  more  obviously  those  we 
associate  with  the  term  metal. 

In  the  case  of  the  triangular  or  acid  particles  of 
the  salt  this  metallic  impregnation  of  the  original 
form  seems  to  result  in  the  constitution  of  the  heav- 
ier, more  inert  later  members  of  the  various  peri- 
odic families  concerned,  and  probably  accounts  for 
the  fact  that  even  those  periodic  families  which  in 
their  first  most  active  and  lightest  members  show  no 
slightest  trace  of  metallic  characteristic,  do  show 
such  characteristics  markedly  in  their  later  mem- 
bers all  of  which  possess  also  greater  chemical  in- 
ertia and  greater  atomic  weight. 

The  constitution  of  lead,  Swedenborg  says,  is 
framed  both  of  such  metallic  round  particles  or 
globules,  and  of  the  infilled  metallic  cubes.  That 
being  so.  the  presumption  would  be  that  compara- 
tively quiet  and  undisturbed  sedimentary  strata 

271  Chemistry,  chap.  XXV.  no.  5. 

170 


GEOLOGV. 


would  be  most  likely  to  afford  the  necessary  matrix 
of  perfect  cubes,  and  perfect  round  water  particles, 
in  the  orderly  juxtaposition.  This,  perhaps,  is  the 
cause  of  the  fact  that  while  the  ore  deposits  of  other 
metals  are  formed  chiefly  in  the  vicinage  of  moun- 
tains characterized  by  metamorphic  features,  lead 
is  an  exception  to  the  general  rule,  being  associated 
largely  with  quiet  sedimentary  strata ;  its  formation 
probably  belonging  to  rather  later  eras. 

Such,  according  to  Swedenborg's  system,  is  an 
outline  of  the  cosmic  causes  and  effects  of  the  suc- 
cessive diluvial  catastrophes  ;  and  such  their  gracious 
use  in  the  Divine  Providence  "that  all  that  was 
hidden  in  the  bowels  of  the  earth  and  all  that  the 
planet  had  gained  by  successive  series  of  changes 
and  multiplied  events,  in  this  manner  should  be  made 
available  to  the  use  of  mortals,  which  it  seems  could 
not  have  been  the  case  had  not  the  terraqueous 
globe  been  forced  to  submit  to  disruption,  and  to 
the  oppression  of  the  deluge.  ...  In  this  way 
matrices  and  ores  were  carried  to  the  coldest  regions 
of  the  earth ;  which  results  would  probably  have 
been  impossible  unless  the  planet  had  been  violently 
treated  in  the  way  above  described ,  and  made  patu- 
lous in  various  places,  and  so  had  received  through- 
out its  surface  an  insemination  of  fit  materials."27' 

272Preface  to  work  On  Copper. 

I7I 


